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From my observation, the country is taking SARS very seriously recently.
SARS Prevention Campain
This afternoon, around 3:00 PM, a large red banner was hung just at the entrance of the residental garden I live in. On the banner, are the large white characters:
Do the work more thoroughly, more deep, more solid and more transparent, Prevent SARS with benifit, with order, and with effectiveness
The same banner appeared in the nearby Tianlin 11th village. Meanwhile, the prevention knowledge has been widely distributed. I got the flyer of "Prevention of Infectious SARS" in the my mailbox this morning. The black boards with introduction of SARS, symptoms and prevention methods are placed in the entrances of the garden.
My building was disinfected
When I entered the elevator, I smelled something like vinegar. Then I noticed the disinfection history record on the wall. It reads:
April 21, 16:00 disinfected with 1:9 Acidum Peroxyaceticum
APril 22, 16:00 disinfected with 1:9 Acidum Peroxyaceticum
......
Acidum Peroxyaceticum C2H4O3 is the mostly used disinfectant here.
May Holiday Cancellation
Actually, I never thought the country will announce such as a big movement to cancel the May holiday. It is such a big movement. Millions of people were affected. People have to cancel their trip schedules and return the tickets. It is announced that airlines will return the full fund for tickets (April 30 to May 7)bought before 24:00 April 22. - Big actions, aren't they?
Dangerous train: T151
It is announced that all passengers on T151 from Beijing to Qinghai province need to see doctors immediately. A SARS patient was found to get off the train in Gansu.
Actually, I have never seen an announcement like this before - bad news are seldom broadcasted to the whole nation. This time, I belive it is a big step moving forward.
Upper sleeping berths all sold out
I booked train tickets back home today. The sleeping berths offers three layer of tickets - upper, middle and lower. Traditionally, people will choose lower berth first since it is most convinient. But now, things completely changed. Now only the lower berths are available for the whole train since people think the higher they sleep, the safer they are. - It is a completely up-side-down world.
P.S. Thanks for zwaffle to pointed out a typo in my article - I wrote "Millions of people were infected" under the May Holiday Cancellation section while I meant "Millions of people were affected". Sorry for that.
Posted by Jian Shuo Wang at April 22, 2003 8:19 PM
Copyright: You are free to redistribute this work, as long as you keep this disclaimer
and this link: http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20030422_china_is_taking_sars_seriously.htm
Dear Mr.Wang,
your unconventional reports and informations about SARS are excellent.
Please continue, because I am further
interested what is happening in my
"home town " Shanghai,were I lived and
worked as Expat for four years.
Sincerely
H.Wagner
There have been so many cases of infected persons travelling on trains and infecting others in China!! Please be extra careful when taking the train! Better yet, do not travel right now!
This morning my daughter's school, Wunan Kindergarten, confirmed that another kindergarten has a child with SARS and is closed. (Xin Si Ji Kindergarten; translated as New Century?) Anyway, I am quite alarmed, perhaps the child is only a suspected case, I hope so! If not, then Shanghai has an epidemic already spreading all over!
Do you know when WHO will announce its findings of the cases in Shanghai?
Posted by: Caroline on April 23, 2003 9:22 AMYes... China is finally dealing with sars head on... in our class yesterday they gave each student thermometers and we were told to check our temperature everyday. Then they gave us a hand-out with all the symptoms and how to prevent sars. This is what i've been waiting for. I think it's still possible to get this thing contained.
Posted by: anna on April 23, 2003 11:41 AMGlad to see all the recent changes, but particularly in the press.
A week ago, various newspapers in Hong Kong, at least, were trying to guess how many cases there were in varous cities or provinces. And the numbers never seem to add up (literally). Since Xinhua news are linked or otherwise syndicated to many news websites around China, Chinese Web surfers everywhere can get the latest numbers on SARS almost simultaneously. (In HK, it takes at least 15 minutes for official news on SARS to get posted. Most of the time, the official website post it later than other news websites?!)
Anyway, I am still not convinced by the very low rate of infection in Shanghai. Even if the hospitals in the city had taken precautions from mid-February... In any case, I've seen a report saying that 98% of Shanghai residents in the survey were aware of the disease, so hopefully, most of people also know how to take the necessary precautions.
Posted by: luo on April 23, 2003 10:29 PMCaroline, you are right. It is exteremely dangerous to take trains since more and more suspected SARS were found on trains. I have decided to return my train tickets and cancel the travel based on the current situation.
Regarding the SARS in Kindergartner, is it the Kang Jian International Kindergartner? I heard it from my friends but not sure. Treat it as rumor before we have official anouncement. I am concerned since this kindergartner is near my house.
I don't know the time of the WHO announcement - I am not a memeber of them. :-) But I believe they will announce it soon - within two days.
Posted by: Jian Shuo Wang (external link) on April 24, 2003 12:19 AMAnna, yes. The actions taken convinced me that the country is heading to the right direction. You will feel safer now. Best wishes to you, and your family - especially your little baby.
Posted by: Jian Shuo Wang (external link) on April 24, 2003 12:21 AMI am so confused why the Shanghai Government did not ban the net bar in this severe situation. Some of my classmates still went to net bar these days and even playing pc games through the whole night! (This net bar have broken the law for many days, but no local government take care of it) . The air there is so terrible. If one SARS patient is there, all the people(about 200 persons) in the net bar will be infected!! And there are hundreds of net bars in shanghai!
I think the government must take some severe measures and must carry them out!
Yes. Net bar is a very dangerous place to go these days - there are no fresh air there and people are all very tired after fighting with each other in the game. It is a good idea to restrict the working hours and improve the conditions
Posted by: Jian Shuo Wang (external link) on April 24, 2003 9:04 AMThe case in Kindergarten is not confirmed yet. So does the case in Shanghai Teacher's university. Hao sent links to the official website that one girl got ill and was suspected to have SARS when she returned from Beijing. But later, the alerm was dismissed.
Posted by: Jian Shuo Wang (external link) on April 25, 2003 10:40 PMHi Jian Shuo
You are providing an excellent information service. Thank you for your efforts.
It would be great if you could post some more info on your site please (where do you get the time?!). I'm looking for policies/procedures that govern how foreigeners exit China via Shanghia airport in relation to SARS please. Do they just board their flight? Do airport authorities perform health checks on departure? Are the policies airline-specific or airport-specific?
This is all about my trying to determine the balanced things to do upon my ageing parents arrival in England following their vacation in China. Their holiday timing was impecable!
Thank you and regards
JJ
Posted by: John R Jeff on April 26, 2003 6:12 PMStudies of Acute Respiratory Distress prior to the SARS epidemic have revealed oxidative stress and low antioxidant levels in the body. People who are poorly nourished, use alcohol and tobacco, have diabetes and low intakes of vit C and E and other antioxidants such as Ginkgo and alpha lipoic acid are at increased risk. I believe that the higher death rates in China are due to the use of high dose steroids and Ribavarin, an anti-viral drug. I suspect that the use of high doses of IV Vitamin C together with other oral antioxidants would save a lot of people. Herbs with anti-oxidant properties and a diet high in fresh vegetables and fruits will protect most people along with not smoking tobacco, not drinking alcohol, not taking drugs and not eating sugar. Be Well.
Posted by: Dr. Alan Greenberg on June 14, 2003 4:21 AM