| ||
| ||
| ||
 |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bad luck led to SARS HK outbreakBathroom fans spread droplets from sewage pipes
From CNN's Marianne Bray
HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- The World Health Organization says an unlucky chain of events triggered Hong Kong's most virulent SARS outbreak in a housing complex where 329 people were infected and 35 died. A WHO health team has presented its findings to Hong Kong authorities on an outbreak at the Amoy Gardens Estate that was so sudden and severe it helped set into motion a travel warning to this territory of 6.8 million people. In late March, a cluster of SARS cases broke out among residents living in apartments 7 and 8 in Block E of Amoy Gardens, the first time the epidemic struck in the community, and the world's most virulent outbreak to date. Up until then hospitals were the main sites of infections, with health care workers and their patients succumbing to SARS. Doctors at the time said the virus could only be spread by coughing and sneezing. In Amoy Gardens, home to about 19,000 residents in 19 33-storey blocks, scores of patients diagnosed with SARS came down with diarrhea, and researchers found fecal matter in toilets and kitchen sinks, leading them to suspect the disease had multiple ways of spreading. It was later discovered the virus could live in diarrhea for up to six hours and could be caught by touching inanimate objects a SARS patients had infected. After conducting an inquiry, the Hong Kong government said at the time one SARS spreader triggered off the first set of infections at the estate in the New Territories, which was exacerbated by person-to-person contact. The virus then spread through a contaminated sewage system and sharing of communal facilities. In a report released Friday, WHO health team leader Dr Heinz Feldmann, echoed these findings, saying dried-out floor drains, bathroom fans and a cessation in flushing water worked together to spark one of the worst outbreaks seen so far. While the virus was not air-borne, the WHO said bathroom fans picked up droplets from sewage pipes, spreading the virus through the complex. In particular: - Floor drain traps in many apartments had dried out. When filled with water the U-shaped pipes stop waste entering from the sewage pipe. - Bathroom exhaust fans sucked contaminated droplets from the sewage pipe picked up through the dried out drains. - The exhaust fans carried contaminated droplets into the light well, with the droplets then entering other apartments through open windows several floors away. - Flush water was shut down for 16 hours starting on the evening of March 21, 2003, to fix a break in a pipe serving unit 8, leaving raw sewage just sitting there. While each block had eight sewage pipes, one pipe collected effluent from the same numbered units on all floors, which explained why those falling victim to the disease all resided in one side of the building. The soil stack was connected to water closets, basins, bathtubs and bathroom floor drains. While the WHO said Amoy Gardens did meet international standards, the building had been modified, with residents adding exhaust fans and air conditioners that were too big for the apartments, helping to spread the disease. While there is no guarantee this won't happen again, the findings suggest authorities have to be especially vigilant around the world to stop this kind of cluster breaking out again, WHO spokesperson, Kay McNiece said. The WHO team said they had found no live coronavirus -- the family of cold viruses that SARS is thought to belong to -- in the building during their investigation. During the Amoy outbreak, hundreds of residents from Block E were sent to quarantine in two holiday villages. At its peak more than 500 Amoy Gardens residents were hospitalized. So far, 261 have been discharged. The deadly virus has so far killed 234 people and infected more than 1703 in this former British colony.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
