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Beijing upbeat, HK hits SARS snag
HONG KONG, China -- A senior health official in Beijing says he is optimistic the spread of the deadly SARS epidemic has reached a "plateau" in the Chinese capital, but a new complication is worrying Hong Kong doctors. The deputy director of Beijing Health Bureau, Liang Wannian, said on Friday he believed the SARS epidemic "was in a stable period with the upward trend contained [in the capital]," China's official Xinhua news agency reported. If the virus does not mutate and if it follows the same trend as it did in Hong Kong and southern Guangdong province, the epidemiologist said he expected the number of cases to drop in Beijing over the next ten days. Over the last week SARS has been running amok in Beijing, with the city government ordering increasingly draconian measures to keep the virus under control. On Friday health officials reported another 176 new cases and 11 more deaths in China -- 96 cases and nine deaths in the capital.. So far around 1,600 people have been infected with SARS and 91 have died from it in China's hardest-hit city to date. Since first emerging in southern China in November, SARS has infected more than 6,000 people and killed over 400 in close to 30 countries and territories. As experts rush to find a cure, doctors in Hong Kong said they have discovered for the first time traces of the virus in the stools and urine of patients thought to be free of SARS and discharged from hospital. Hong Kong's Director of Health said experts are now trying to work out how long recovered patients may be passing the virus in their stools and urine. Tests are also being done to see if the people found with the traces of the virus are infectious. If they are, it could prove a serious complication in the bid to contain the disease's spread. Doctors have also reported evidence of permanent lung scarring and possible cases of relapses in patients infected with SARS. Scarring, or pulmonary fibrosis, occurs when lung tissues die and are unable to transport oxygen. The level of disability depends on the extent of the damage, but extensive scarring can make it hard for people to walk around or work. And even while SARS appears to be waning in Hong Kong -- on Friday authorities counted 11 new cases and eight deaths -- news Wednesday that 12 people had to be readmitted to hospital brought fresh concerns. Six of the Hong Kong patients who suffered relapses had recovered and were discharged, but six were still in hospitals, where all were listed in good condition. Doctors have suggested that patients may not have fully recovered when they were first discharged, or weakened immunity systems may have left them vulnerable to secondary infections. In other developments: • Taiwan's Department of Health reported four more SARS deaths on Friday. The total SARS death toll on the island is seven from 100 total cases. • A two-day conference has wrapped up in Toronto with health officials saying detection and protection are the keys to beating the disease. As of Friday, Canada was reporting 149 cases, including 22 deaths. • The World Health Organization says laboratory tests for SARS being used in India are inaccurate. So far, India has reported 19 cases of the disease and has quarantined 200 people. • The Xiaotangshan Hospital in China threw open its doors after more than 7,000 builders worked feverishly to erect the structure in just eight days. Some of the 1,200 medical staff due from the military had arrived, and 156 SARS patients were moved into the hospital on Thursday evening.
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