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| Sunday, 4 May 2003 |
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SARS virus mutates; WHO says China lacks weapons GENEVA/BEIJING, Saturday (Reuters) Chinese officials said on Friday SARS was at its peak in Beijing, but Hong Kong scientists said the microbe was mutating and the World Health Organization warned that China still lacked the equipment and expertise to fight it. WHO also removed the United States and Britain from the list of countries affected by SARS, following a 20-day period without local spread of the flu-like disease. Canada, China - including Hong Kong - Taiwan, Mongolia and Singapore remain on the list of countries where national authorities reported the virus is being spread locally as opposed to being imported from elsewhere. In Beijing, the deputy director general of the Municipal Health Bureau, Liang Wannian, said Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome was peaking in the capital, the hardest hit city in the world with 91 deaths and more than 1,600 cases. "Since April 21, the number of SARS patients in Beijing has entered the peak period," Liang told a news conference. "My personal judgment is the present high plateau of the number of cases in Beijing will continue for a period of time. Overall the situation in Beijing is stable, and the upward trend has been effectively checked." SARS has killed close to 200 people in China and infected nearly 4,000 since it emerged in the southern province of Guangdong late last year. Globally, it has infected more than 6,300 people in 30 countries, killing more than 400. But WHO said China had a great deal more work to do in containing the virus, which kills between 6 and 10 percent of its victims. "A WHO field visit to one large hospital not officially designated as a SARS hospital demonstrated the urgent need to review strategies for infection control procedures," WHO said in a statement posted on its Web site at http://www.who.int. "Current infection control practices in emergency rooms may need to be modified, since health care workers continue to be infected. Among front-line health workers, 15 new cases were reported in Beijing. There are now 300 infected health care workers," WHO said. Health-care workers have been hard hit by SARS since the beginning because they see patients who may not know they have the contagious infection. WHO says doctors and nurses should wear specific types of face masks, gloves and even goggles when treating suspected SARS patients. WHO also said China's government needed to do more to reassure worried citizens. "The public needs to have more information on when and where infection is happening," said Dr. Henk Bekedam, WHO's representative in China. "We don't know that right now." SEEDING SARS GLOBALLY WHO said China was facing a critical period. "The next few months will prove crucial in the attempt to contain SARS worldwide, which now greatly depends on whether the disease can be controlled in China," WHO said. Scientists are hoping that, like its close relative the common cold, SARS will prove to be a seasonal disease and will wane in the summer months, giving public health experts a chance to come to grips with it. David Heymann, the WHO head of communicable diseases, said if China did not stamp out SARS, there would always be the danger that it would continue to "seed" the disease throughout the world. Doctors say immediately isolating SARS patients is key to preventing its spread and quick treatment may help patients survive. Symptoms include high fever, cough and pneumonia, and there is no standard treatment. It is mainly passed by droplets through sneezing and coughing. Hong Kong scientists said they had isolated four different strains of the virus from patients. It was the first indication the virus was evolving, as earlier analysis had suggested all strains seen so far were virtually identical. But scientists have said the coronavirus family was very susceptible to mutation. SARS is a previously unknown strain of coronavirus, unlike anything ever seen in animals or people although the coronaviruses have not been widely studied. "Such a quick mutation means that even if there is a cure it may become ineffective. Even a diagnostic test may not be able to detect it if it has undergone change," said Dennis Lo, one of the microbiologists who reported the mutations. SARS has killed 170 people in Hong Kong and infected 1,611. Canada said it would soon launch an aggressive campaign to persuade tourists that it was safe to visit Toronto. Ontario health officials told a news conference in Toronto that 176 people, or two-thirds of SARS patients, had been discharged from hospital. They also said there were 30 active probable hospital cases as of Friday, compared with 53 on April 23. |
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