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SARS:
1.3 billion Chinese left in the dark
The global spread of the atypical pneumonia known as severe acute respiratory
syndrome, or SARS, is making headlines throughout the world and seriously
affecting international travel. East Asians in particular are quite nervous
about the mysterious illness that has infected more than 1,800 people
worldwide, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam and Singapore.
The tragic irony of the global SARS outbreak is that the country where it
originated - China - has told its people, and the World Health Organization
(WHO), next to nothing about this contagious disease that has killed at least
62 people to date.
A look at Beijing and Guangzhou, two of China's largest cities, illustrates the
effects of the media blackout regarding SARS. This treatable but lethal illness
may or may not be spreading stealthily through the largest population in the
world. Ignoring the rapid spread of a dangerous illness is nothing new to the
leadership in Beijing, which has only recently begun to admit that China's AIDS
problem requires attention - this after United Nations Secretary General Kofi
Annan warned China that it was on the cusp of a major AIDS epidemic last year.
As with AIDS or any disease, SARS is best controlled through early detection,
which is only possible when the public is informed.
Beijing: Clueless in the capital
Beijing is coming to grips with a startling reality: in the Chinese capital,
one gets to learn more about the invasion of Iraq than about China's internal
front of fighting to contain the killer virus that causes atypical pneumonia.
Preoccupied with maintaining social stability and fearing any bad news that may
tarnish China's international image, Beijing authorities have shied away from
reporting about the outbreak. According to WHO statistics, 806 of 1,804 cases
of SARS worldwide as of Tuesday had been reported in China, where at least 34
people had died.
Yet talking to people on the city's streets has revealed that the majority of
Beijing's residents are either ignorant of SARS or have sketchy information
about the illness raging inside China - even though Beijing has been designated
a hotspot for the illness by WHO and is one of six countries where local chains
of transmission have been identified, along with Hong Kong.
At the Yansha flower market, where on the weekend hundreds of people were busy
buying flowers for the annual festival of sweeping the graves, vendors and
customers were surprised to hear about the disease.
"Dangerous pneumonia in Beijing? I haven't heard of it and the papers haven't
reported it," a salesgirl who gave her name as Liu said confidently.
"I think this pneumonia is spread only in Hong Kong but I'm not surprised
because they often have dangerous epidemics. Remember the chicken flu?" asked
another businesswoman surnamed Zhang.
Over the years, Beijing residents have become used to a string of nasty flu
epidemics, with ever-new mutations that have rendered new vaccines useless and
have learnt to meet them stoically by using piles of Chinese herbs and
remedies.
While people wearing gauze masks have appeared in some of the narrow and
densely populated city lanes as well as on public buses, many have been quick
to dismiss the seriousness of the disease.
"It is probably just another bad liugan" (flu), said one doctor of
traditional Chinese medicine. "The panic is because they haven't treated it
timely and properly with Chinese herbal remedies."
"Because of the weather change, many upper-respiratory infections appear in
spring," asserted Dr Li Liming, head of the national Center for Disease Control
and Prevention. "We don't foresee any nationwide epidemics in the near future
but a few localized and small epidemics are quite possible."
Beijing people's tempered stoicism in fending off annual flu epidemics, coupled
with the government's deliberate news blackout, have transformed the capital
into a surreal city where problems do not exist as long as they are not
mentioned.
Hong Kong has completely dropped off of the Chinese media's radar. Few in
Beijing are aware that in the past few days Hong Kong, which has seen at least
685 cases of SARS and 16 deaths, had imposed stringent public health measures.
All schools in the territory of Hong Kong have been closed, those who have had
intimate contact with victims have been quarantined and new cases are to be
sent to a designated hospital. But nothing of these desperate attempts to
combat the spread of the disease has been reported in Beijing.
Chinese officials and the tightly controlled state media fell virtually silent
after saying in early February that atypical pneumonia had killed five people
and infected 305 in the southern province of Guangdong. But last week, the
government drastically raised its death toll from the new disease, saying that
31 people had died in Guangdong and that there were three deaths in Beijing.
Despite the government-imposed news blackout, fears and rumors about the spread
of the deadly strain of pneumonia have slowly begun to filter. Two
international sports events based in Beijing have been canceled because of SARS
fears. The World Economic Forum has delayed its annual China Business Summit
set for Beijing this month until September or October. Rock-music lovers in the
city have been also asking why the first-ever concerts in China by the Rolling
Stones were abruptly canceled.
"Gauze masks out of stock in the capital city", read the headline in the
Beijing Youth Daily on Monday morning. Without giving any figures for the
number of people infected and the background of the disease, the paper
described a panicky situation in the city where people prompted by rumors have
rushed to buy surgical masks and stock up Chinese herbal medicines.
Investigators from the WHO, meanwhile, were still awaiting daily updates from
across China that Chinese health authorities promised them on Friday. Members
of the WHO investigative team in Beijing were also awaiting approval for a
request to visit the southern province of Guangdong, where the outbreak is
believed to have originated.
Guangzhou: Ground Zero given zero information
In Guangzhou, assumed to be the source of SARS, many people seem unconcerned
about the illness. Reports regarding the disease only lasted a few days in
early February. Now there are no reports about what's happening in either
Guangdong province or Hong Kong in almost all official media in this city of 10
million. Just as disturbing is that Guangdong has not updated its reports to
the WHO since February 28.
Despite the media gag, the outbreak of SARS shows no sign of slowing in
Guangdong. Sources point out that SARS has caused panic within Jinan
University, Guangzhou's prestigious university for overseas Chinese. Chinese
university students typically live in crowded dormitories with as many as eight
people living in a room the size of a single-occupant dormitory room in the
United States. In a female students' dormitory at Jinan, three overseas
students living in the same room are believed to have SARS. One of the girls,
who recently went to Macau, has died. Another is now isolated in Huaqiao
Hospital, while the whereabouts of the other are unknown. Two dormitory
buildings for undergraduate students and one for graduate students have also
reported cases of SARS.
Although the exact figure of infected students is unknown, a conservative
estimate of 10 are now hospitalized in Huaqiao Hospital. However, as the
hospital told Asia Times Online, there are only four students suspected to be
infected with SARS, while the others are just patients of hepatitis. The
hospital representative declined to comment on rumors that the department of
infectious disease had been closed and why sickrooms were packed with patients.
Zhongshan Third Hospital, another place widely rumored to be highly
infected by SARS, denied that the hospital had patients infected with SARS and
refused to respond to our inquiries. According to sources, more than 30 people
have died of SARS since early February in the hospital. There are also health
workers suspected to have been infected. Sadly, this information has been
withheld from the public by the hospital. As a result, any attempt at
ascertaining the true number of SARS cases in Guanzhou is done through
guesswork.
In the nearby Shenzhen railway station more than half of people wore gauze
mask; shops were selling gauze masks by cartons and many people bought them in
dozens. It is obvious that residents in Shenzhen show stronger awareness in
preventing SARS. Shenzhen is just outside the Hong Kong's territorial boundary
and Hong Kong residents do much of their business in Shenzhen.
The fear prevalent in Hong Kong is clearly spreading to Guangzhou despite the
local government maintaining that atypical pneumonia is under control in
Guangdong province, of which Guangzhou is the capital. Debates over the disease
have become the No 1 topic on online bulletin-board services (BBSs). Most are
comments over the situation in Hong Kong. People are also questioning the local
government's attitude toward the epidemic, which is criticized more with each
death.
Just looking at a few lines from Chinese online BBSs illuminates the growing
local concern over what unfortunately looks like an illness that isn't leaving
any time soon.
"WHO has confirmed that the worldwide virus is the same one [as Guangdong's
SARS virus]. WHO experts in Beijing yesterday have for the first time linked
the pneumonia outbreak on Chinese mainland to a mystery flu-like illness that
has hit other countries on three continents. WHO urged the Beijing government
to increase its cooperation. The organization has confirmed Guangdong as the
origin of SARS. "
"I just know that the only way to avoid your words being censored is to say
that things are 'under control'."
"You can just not report, you can also select not to broadcast. We do not care.
But you should at least tell the public how to prevent. Only Yang Cheng Evening
Post reported in a corner on March 26 that there are more than 800 cases in
Guangzhou, with more than 20 deaths [according to the Health Bureau of
Guangdong province]."
"We are very good at news censorship. Our newspapers have very few reports
about the situation in Hong Kong and almost no reports on mainland's situation.
But luckily, they have not cut Hong Kong's TV news."
"Have you read today's Guangzhou Daily? 'More than 600 cases by the end of
Feb'. God, now it's April."
(Asia Times Online/Inter Press Service)
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