From today's SCMP (can't find this online). A must-read. So disgusting. I'm never going near a construction site again.
Construction site linked to Amoy Gardens outbreak by Ella Lee
Medical experts investigating the rapid spread of atypical pneumonia at a Hong Kong housing estate believe they have made a breakthrough by linking the explosion in cases to a nearby construction site.
Concern over the rate of infection at Amoy Gardens in Ngau Tau Kok, and the reasons for it, were a key factor in the WHO's decision on Thursday to advise travellers not to visit Hong Kong. A team of health officials and medical experts has been investigating the outbreak at the estate, where 270 people have now been infected.
The Department of Health has taken samples from temporary toilets at the construction site, where one worker has been confirmed as having SARS.
But medical experts believe the spread of the disease may have been accelerated by bodily waste from the top five floors of the site.
They have discovered that as there were no toilets on those floors, workers were using the flor instead. The experts suspect infected particles may have been blown across to the nearby Block E of the estate, including residents. Block E has the highest rate of infection.
The death toll in Hong Kong climbed to 17 yesterday. The latest victim is Lau Tai-kwan, 56, a paediatric surgeon. He is the first Hong Kong doctor to die of the disease.
There were 26 new cases reported yesterday, two of them from Amoy Gardens. The total number of cases in Hong Kongi s now 734, while 98 patients have been discharged.
The WHO said when issuing an advisory that travellers should not visit Hong Kong or Guandong. It said it was concerned about possible "environmental factors" causing the spread of the disease, and referred to the Amoy Gardens outbreak.
A spokesman for the Housing Society revealed yesterday that a few construction site workers had been off sick, but refused to say if they were suffering from SARS.
The Housing Society halted construction work on Tuesday with a view to resuming work next Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a cat owned by a Block E family was reportedly carrying the coronavirus, the same virus found in some SARS patients.
But University of Hong Kong virologist Malik Peiris said that did not necessarily mean there was an animal-to-human infection. "Pets in those families could also have been infected with the same virus," he said.