Hong Kong's Sars virus cases soar
BREATHING UNEASY: Government health officials have quarantined 214 residents for ten days after 92 new cases of the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) virus were reported in the Amoy Gardens housing estate in Hong Kong. This young resident at the estate wears a protective mask and gloves. Reuters 01 April 2003
HONG KONG: Hong Kong has quarantined more than 200 people in a single apartment block and sealed the building to try to halt the spread of a mystery pneumonia that has killed nearly 60 people worldwide.
But many families had already fled the complex, officials said, sparking fears of multiple new infections in the Chinese territory.
Hong Kong, which like Singapore has closed all schools, reported a staggering 92 new cases in the housing block yesterday, bringing the total number of infections in the former British colony to more than 620.
"We are now examining all possible angles, to see if it is airborne or in the water mains," a government spokeswoman said.
The disease has triggered tighter screenings at many airports and a growing number of countries have advised citizens against unnecessary travel to the worst-affected areas.
Singapore has closed schools and quarantined 945 people, with hundreds of others advised to stay home, as new infections from the flu-like virus showed no sign of letting up.
Yesterday it sent nurses to the airport to check incoming passengers.
Travellers have spread severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) in the past few weeks to Hong Kong, Canada, Singapore and Vietnam after the virus first showed up in southern China.
Cases have since surfaced in the United States, Britain, France, Australia, Japan and Taiwan.
More than 1,600 people have been infected worldwide, but many have since recovered.
The high number of cases at the Amoy Gardens housing estate in Kong Kong's crowded Kowloon peninsula has raised fears that the virus could be airborne rather than carried by droplets from sneezing or coughing.
Dozens of health workers in full surgical gear stood guard at the entrance of block E to stop any residents going out. Policemen in masks cordoned off the block.
"It was only when I arrived at work that I knew the building had been sealed off," said a resident returning to the estate, speaking through a mask.
Hong Kong said all residents would be quarantined for 10 days and anyone showing symptoms of the disease – a high fever, chills and breathing difficulties – would be sent to hospital.
During the quarantine period, residents would receive medical checkups and free meals from the government.
But entire families from 154 units in the building have already fled.
"Those who have left must contact us...every infected person has the potential to cause another big outbreak like the one at Amoy Gardens," Health Minister Yeoh Eng-kiong told a news conference.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Saturday that the virus may wreak havoc.
"The potential for infecting large numbers of people is great," said its director Julie Gerberding. "We may be in the early stages of what could be a larger problem."
Canadian health officials said on Sunday a fourth person had died from the disease, bringing the death toll to 59 people worldwide, including 13 in Hong Kong.
It has been clear in recent weeks that the disease was fast spreading in the community of nearly seven million people but it was not until late last week that Hong Kong admitted it.
Last Thursday, it ordered schools to close and more than 1,000 family and friends of those with the disease to be quarantined, but the quarantine did not go into effect until Monday.
Yeoh said an infected man with kidney disease had visited his brother who lived at Block E and probably tainted the block in the process. In just six days, the number of infections at the estate has jumped from seven to 213.
Up to 70 per cent of those infected in Block E live in one wing, leading experts to wonder if the virus is airborne or even waterborne.
Yeoh said: "Maybe there are factors in the environment that cause the virus to spread quickly, like at Amoy Gardens. There may be another outbreak."