Today I noticed the press is starting to get more hopeful on SARS. BBC is running a piece called Doctors confident of beating killer virus, NYTimes says Virus Called Mostly Under Control. Every time I've seen a WHO expert on TV inspecting some village in Guangdong, the inspectors aren't wearing masks, though many of the Chinese officials accompanying them usually are.
The SCMP ran a list on Thursday of the 27 SARS fatalities with the gender, age, and backgrounds of each person. I felt a lot better once I'd seen that the ages were mostly in the 70's and 80's, and the exceptions (35, 39, "40's", 49, 56, 62) either had a history of chronic disease or were admitted at a late stage of SARS. 13 of the 27 were aged 70+, 2 were 60's; 16 suffered from pre-existing illnesses; 2 were admitted in the late stages. The BBC in its "Doctors confident" story interview a young Singaporean girl who smiles and says getting SARS was no big deal; she fought it off easier than I did with dengue, it seems.
At the Hong Kong airport, they're taking people's temperatures before they get on the plane -- if you've got a fever you need to get an X-ray to prove you don't have SARS (I'm not sure if they have medical X-ray machines available at the airport, or if they're just going to use the baggage inspection X-ray machines).
I was thinking of heading off somewhere in Asia for a week, but Thailand's off my list -- they've been quarantining incoming passengers from Hong Kong. Malaysia isn't allowing in flights from Hong Kong. I've wanted to go to Aceh, Sumatra for a long time now -- oops, it looks like now isn't the best time.
Posted by cce at April 12, 2003 10:18 AM | TrackBack