In the news conference held at 3:00 PM today, 339 cases were confirmed in Beijing, 402 more are suspected.

Meanwhile, the long May holiday is cancelled. It is announced one month before that the traditional long May holiday starts at May 1 till May 7. However, the schedule is changed. One of the direct impact is that my wedding ceremony to be held on May 6 will be on the working day.

Recipt to prevent SARS?

According to People’s Daily, some famous doctor gave the Chinese medicine recipt to prevent SARS.

Use it at your own risk.

Breaking News: Health Ministor and Major of Beijing sacked

The official Xinhua news agency gave no reason for the top officials’ sackings, but speculation has been growing in recent days that minister Zhang Wenkang and Mayor Meng Xuenong might be forced from office over their handling of the outbreak

Source: CNN.com April 20, 2003

Report on Sina.com on this:

It is very simple – only 23 characters. No reasons were given. There are 245 posts in the discussion under this topics in 6 hours on Sina.com. The majority of the posts are singing very highly of this event. “It is the hope of China”, wdzoup from IP 219.234.63.* said.

April 18. It is reported by the official newspaper that SARS cases were found in central China’s Henan province. They are returning workers in Zhumadian, Nanyang and Kaifeng. The cases were found on April 16 and 17.

I summarize the situation by the official announcement – actually, the news report is always treated as official announcement since if the officials does not approve, the news cannot come out regarding these sensitive topics:

SARS Hainan: None

SARS Sichuan: 7 cases, 2 died

SARS Jilin: Two suspected case

The latest information on the official website of Ministor of Health is still the data of April 7:

Province/City Cases Death

Guangdong 1203 43

Shanxi 24 1

Beijing 19 4

Sichuan 4 1

Hunan 6 1

Shanghai 1 0

Guangxi 11 3

Total 1268 53

Source: News center, MOH. Data up to April 6

WHO data

Country: China

Cumulative number of case(s) 1482

Number of new cases since last WHO update 25

Number of deaths 65

Number recovered 1126

Local chain(s) of transmission Yes

Date of last report 18 Apr 2003

Source: WHO SARS Report of April 18

Beijing SARS Map

The following map is spreading quickly on the net and via emails. The circles denotes the infected areas. Note: I don’t think there are any solid evidence behind this map. Take it as rumor only.

I found SARS has been part of people’s life these days. There are too many things that remind you of the existance of SARS in the city.

Sticker in taxi

The first thing I noticed is a yellow sticker on right part of the dashboard in the taxi I took. The sticker is about 30 CM in width, stating:

SARS can be cured. Don’t panic. If you found the following symptoms: Fever, headache, an overall feeling of discomfort, and body aches, please call this number immediately:

021-52285500

The same yellow sticker was sticked just in front of the passenger’s seat on the first row in the car. It also appeared on many taxis. When I took the Dazhong taxi home at night, I found the same sticker. According to the taxi driver, the notice was sticked there at the begining of today.

Topic

When I sit down to have my dinner at the table in a restraunt in Xujiahui, I noticed the couple near my table were talking about SARS – it is very common that people talk about SARS every where.

News paper

Picking up the latest Xin Min Evening, two headlines are all about SARS – one said that the central government is paying enough attention to the situation of SARS; the other talk about the SARS precautions the city had took. SARS related news been the headline of local newspapers for about a week.

Radio

Whenever I get on taxi these days, I will ask the driver to turn on radio – there are always some pieces of news on SARS – most of them are positive – reporting the SARS has been under control; or SARS patients have recovered and have left the hospital…

TV

On Oriential TV, most of the SARS topics are related to actions taken to prevent SARS from spreading. When I opened TV today, I got to know that Shanghai has be second confirmed case of SARS – the father of the previous SARS patient. According to the news report, the situation of both of them are stable.

Taxi driver

I happened to talked with a 40-year-old taxi driver today. He comes from the Dazhong taxi company. I asked whether the news of “all taxi are disinfected everyday” is true or not. He just told me: “My taxi was disinfected one month ago – they just push the spayer bottle twice and told me, your car has been disinfected. I don’t believe it will have any real effect.” He also added. “However, I am not afraid of SARS at all – I don’t believe I will get hit.”

Search items

I analyzed the visit log of this website today and found some visitors come to my site by typing the following search terms in search engines. You can see what people are thinking about these days.

• sars symptons
• sars shanghai
• sars china
• sars fujian
• can i go to shanghai china even though they have sars
• Picture of sars patients wearing masks
• SARS in china since jan 2002
• offical information of atypical pneumonia

Joke

A man was reported to be ejected by airlines for SARS joke. He said he got SARS on the plane and caused panic. It turned out he is only playing a joke but he was ejected by the caption with two friends. People are already too nervous and don’t play jokes any more.

But this photo is really interesting.

Image source: Chinese tea (Chinese site)

?Most Update Status Report of SARS in China Provided by Ministry of Health (MOH) (Chinese site)

Updated Disease Treatment Solution sent by MOH to all hospitals and publics. (Word Format, Chinese document)

Phone numbers:

• Beijing: Haidian District Disease Control and Prevention Center (Tel: 010-62551444, 24 hours)
• Shanghai: Xu Hui District Disease Control and Prevention Center (Tel: 021-64741079, 24 hours)
• Shanghai: Shanghai Emergency Disease Response Hotline 021-62750270 ,
• Guangzhou: Tianhe District Disease Control and Prevention Center (Tel: 020- 85517271, 24 hours)
• Ambulance (Dial: 120)
• Police (Dial: 110)
• MOH website at http://www.moh.gov.cn/
• China Disease Control and Prevention Center: http://www.chinacdc.net.cn
• WHO website at http://www.who.int
• ISOS website at http://www.internationalsos.com/
• CDC website at http://www.cdc.gov/

This is to help Anna and anyone non-Chinese speaking persons who concerns about the SARS situation in Fujian. The People Daily’s report was in Chinese. I am trying to translate it into English. Note: I don’t want a accurate word by word translation – just deliver some basic ideas so you are informed.

April 11, Fuzhou. Zhao Peng report.

Recently, the Fujian Tourism Bureau held the “May 1 Holiday Seasons Press Conference”. The Bureau Chief Ming Min said that there is no case of SARS found in Fujian Province so far. Fujian is still the “Safest Tour Destination”

Impacted by SARS, a portion of travelers concern about the safety to tour in the May 1 Chinese holiday seasons. The personal in the Health Bureau of Fujian pointed out that these concerns are completely unnecessary. Till now, there is no SARS case in Fujian, let alone any death for this disease…….

Source: People’s Daily via Sina.com.

Anyone know the English edition of this news? I didn’t spend much time and effort to translate the article.

Regarding the recent SARS outbreak in China and then to the world, I am very happy to see the lift of the ban in media. From the begining of April, the public awareness of SARS has been greatly improved with the term “atypical pnuemonia” repeatedly shown in TV, radio, newspaper, magzine and websites. Note: In China, the virus is called “atypical pnuemonia” (AP), not SARS.

Good to see the media coverage

Chinese media, especially the Internet portal like Sina, Sohu and Netease, are actually very smart and very sensitive to breaking news – just like any news website in any country, hit rate is always the first priority for them. After offical news of SARS was release from designated offical news source, which is a signal for the unlift of the ban of this topic, they are rushing at the fastest speed to cover this topic. For example, Sina has created special report for SARS (Chinese site) with about 20 piece of news every day. For example, there are 21 piece of news on SARS on April 12 and 19 on April 13.

News aimed to release the panic

Here are some sample news headlines from the most popular web site Sina.com in the last two days. (Chinese sites)

No SARS case found in Helongjiang province 20030412

First SARS patient in Beijing Bascially Recovered (20030412 18:43)

National Tour Administration: Tour lines to Singopore, Malaysia and Thailand paused (20030412 10:58)

There is no SARS in Fujian. Take it Easy in May 1 Holiday (20030411 22:43)

Among the news report, I found this one interesting: Experts Explained SARS Prevention Knowledges, Citizens Took Off Faical Masks Immediately (Chinese site).

According to the “expert”, people should not wear facial masks. Facial masks are only needed when 1) If you go to hosptial 2) If you are infected by SARS 3) If you are the doctor 4) If SARS patients is near you. He also added that wearing a facial masks will do harm for the health. There are at least three reasons:

1. Increase anxiecity of yourself.
2. Cause panic in the people around you
3. Cause inconvience of your respiration

To make sure the readers understand how well the doctor’s job was done, the reporter even added “before the doctors continued, the person who consulted the doctor took off her facial mask immediately”

I begin to worry again that when the meida are directing people to relax and don’t panic, will it help to control SARS? Especially when the experts are asking people to take off facial masks just to release the panic, will SARS situation be better?

Overall situation is moving positively

The media only report the positive sides of the situation. It is good to certain extend. What really made me feel safer is to see the solid work to control SARS is being done.

Lots of companies are disinfecting their working places. Taxi drivers, airlines, hotels and all public places have joined the disinfection movement. I believe it will be much effective way to control SARS.

Only after we see more and more solid actions like this, we will feel safer.

Concerning the recent outbreak of SARS in Asia, especially in Hong Kong and Guangdong Province of China, WHO has issued warning to travelers against going to China. I saw the questions like this in the message boards of this site: “I have booked my tickets to Shanghai in this May. Shall I cancel my trip to Shanghai? Do you have any advice?”

To cancel or not to cancel, it is a question

Well. It is not an easy question to answer. If you ask about my advice, I will tell you two facts about Shanghai. The first is, you won’t feel the fear in Shanghai now. The life is going on and shops still opens. Schools are not closed and seldom can you see people wearing facial masks. It is a city of 16 million people. The official one case of SARS is relatively a smaller number (although I do think there are some cases not counted in the official report). So you don’t have to worry about going to Shanghai. The second fact is, like traveling to any area of the world now, the SARS is there and you have the risk to get infected when you set your foot to a SARS infected area. The risks of SARS, I believe, are not very high – at least not higher than other infectious disease.

My personal suggestion: Go ahead to Shanghai

I am living in this city. Millions of foreigners are also living in this city (3% of the population). It is not the worst of time to come to this city. The only factor to consider is the concerns of the people around you in your country about your trip after your return – people in your neighborhood may think you are dangerous – actually you are not if you don’t see the symptoms on you.

Shanghai is still beautiful and nice – like many people have experienced. There are certainly some risks there – this is for sure. But I don’t think it has to prevent you from coming this city.

When I talked with my friends in Shanghai today asking their suggestions for whether a foreigner should come to Shanghai or cancel the trip. Their answer is positive. They suggest to come but do some precautions – don’t go to public places and stay away from any one who coughs.

Public oppinions from CNN is negitive about the travel

Just checked CNN’s quick vote on the topic.

Would the warning from the World Health Organization make you change your travel plans to Hong Kong or China?

92% choosed YES

8% choosed NO

It is reasonable.

If you ask me “Will you cancel your trip to Iraq?” (if I did planned the trip), my answer is definitely NO, because of the war. But the fact is, not all areas of Iraq is affected by the war. There are some villages that are not important that either Iraqi or U.S. army will pay attention to. They are relatively safe – Shall I say that?

So before you make decision, just consider China is large, much larger than any other south Asia country. The outbreak of one province or city, as shown on TV or website, may not neccessarily be regarded as the situation of the entire country.

Negitive reasons for not to go

Meanwhile, please get aware of the following factors when you come to Shanghai.

1) The official information may not be the actual number. This can be seen via the conflicts of numbers. So do keep alerted no matter what the public is saying.

2) The SARS is highly infectious. The situation now is OK, but who knows about tomorrow. A large scale breakout troughout the city or country is still possible. At that time, it may not be easy to get back to where you come. The flights may be either cancelled or policy (of China or your country) prohibit you from going back if the situation become worse.

The decision is yours.

To my readers,

No matter you cancel or continue your trip, may God be with you and may you be safe and happy.

I believe this entry should be the most useful one among all the SARS categoris so far. I’d like to provide some solid information about the hospitals and websites you should go to see a doctor if you suspect you are infected by SARS.

Offical website

According to the press conference from the Shanghai government, http://www.smhb.gov.cn is the offical website for SARS information. It is a pity that there is no English information on this site and I’d like to pick some most important news and list it here.

Hosiptals for SARS

You can go to any hospital to see a doctor if you suspect you got SARS. If it is confirmed, you will be moved to the following four hospitals which are especailly equipped to treat SARS.

Foreigners – Shanghai Pneumonia Hospital

Not sure whether I translated the name correctly. It is located on

507, Zheng Min Road (Yang Pu district, in Puxi)

Transportation: Bus No. 8, 55, 75, 90

All childrens – Shanghai Children’s Medical Center, SCMC

All childrens, foreign or native, will go to Shanghai Children’s Medical Center. Here is the information:

Location: 1678, Dongfang Road,

Transportation: Bus No. 219, 593, 614, 626, 771, 819, 871, 980, Tunnel 9, 119, 795, 772

Shanghai Infectious Diseases Hospital

Location: 56, Shui Dian Road

Fax: 56637442

Updated: SARS Hotlines

Yesterday, SARS Hotlines open in Beijing, Shangai and Guangzhou by Disease Prevention and Control Center.

Beijing

0086-10-64274209

0086-10-64287788

0086-10-64212486(English)

24 Hours a day

Shanghai

0086-21-52285500

08:30 – 20:30, Beijing Time (GMT +0800)

Guangdong

0086-20-84194026

0086-20-84451025

Updated: Hotlines in other areas April 12, 2003

Jiang Su Province: 0086-25-3737121

Nanjing Province: 0086-25-3421474

Hubei Province: 0086-27-87652021

How to dial

If you are in Shanghai, Beijing or Guangzhou, just dial the last 8 numbers listed above for your city. If you are not in the three cities, dial 010 (for Beijing), 021 (for Shanghai), 020 (for Guangzhou) before you dial the 8-digit number. For international calls, add China’s country code 86. The intertional calling code may be different. For example, in U.S., you need to dial 011-86-10-64212486 for English hotlines in Beijing.

Source: Sina.com.cn

Best wishes

I hope that you can get through this tough situation and don’t need these hospitals.

On contrast with the no any news in March, April is the month the term of “Atypical Pneumonia” has been put the headlines of all major news papers (online and traditional)

The change started when the Minister of Health hosted the media conference at the begining of April. Before that event, no matter what media it is, you just cannot find anything about the already hot term SARS or “atypical pneumonia”, just as no body in the media industry has even heard of them. The media conference broken the silence. The media conference was played again and again in CCTV – at least I have watched for twice. The headline of almost all media changed to “SARS under control” the next day.

The Panic is “under control”. But how about SARS

If you watch TV or pick up newspaper in Shanghai now, just be sure that you can watch or read news about SARS. It is the hot term in media now. BUT, all stating the situation is under control. “there is NO sars in Shanghai” or “There is only one case in Shanghai”. People are very happy to see the news. For those who has Internet access are still aware of the danger. But how about those who use TV and newspaper as the only source of information? Will they really relax and abandon all precautions? What if there are any infection chains that were not discovered in this big city?

Detailed information gave me more confidence

I have to say Shanghai is doing a great job so far in the improving information disclosure. The SARS related news has taken about 1/6 of the time of evening news on Shanghai TV and Orient TV. It is reported that 4 hosipitals have been identified as the special treatment hospital for SARS in Shanghai, among them, one are specially idenfied for foreigners. The news program has shown the video of these hospitals and the doctors there said that although no SARS cases were found, they are completely ready for the coming SARS patients if there is any in Shanghai.

Taxi and metro tickets disinfectant

The TV also shows the scene that all Dazhong taxis were disinfected. The metro tickets are also been disinfected one by one by the metro staff. It seems very good and the life in Shanghai should be safer – at least people are taking actions.

The campaigns of SARS awareness are also going on. I saw the black board of SARS prevention instructions have been laid in lots of residental areas. The preventional measures were also been posted in the elevator of my apartment. As soon as people are aware of this and take actions, the SARS is not that dangerous.

I read about Anna’s comments about her concerns on SARS. Mainlander followed up.

SHANGHAI KNIGHT: ok… let me get this straight… i may get SARS from someone who doesn’t show any symptoms because he is still in the incubation period?

WEI SONG: i live in xiamen and let me tell you that no one knows for sure if there have been SARS infected people here. we’ve heard of 2 university students dying but nothing official has been reported. our professors keep telling us that we shouldn’t panic but because the media has been so “hush-hush” about it we have become more paranoid. the locals are still unaware of the real danger of this virus. everyone still spits everywhere and everyone still coughs and sneezes without trying to cover thier mouths. it’s really difficult for me because i have a little baby and yet i have to realize that this is just how it is. i’m still waiting for “OFFICIAL NEWS”. till then i don’t have a choice but to live in fear. as soon as i’m done with my business here, i’m flying out of here and never coming back. unfortunately, many foreigners also feel the way i feel which is bad for China.

final thought: how could there be no SARS in Xiamen? We’re close to HongKong and the GuanDong Province.

Posted by: anna on April 8, 2003 05:00 PM

oh… i forgot to mention something…

2 months ago my baby developed some kind of gastroenteritis. at that time i was unaware that there was this SARS outbreak. I took my baby to Xiamen’s #1 hospital and the Doctor on duty gave him RIBAVIRIN. At that time I was puzzled as to why they would give antibiotics used for Respiratory problems to my child who had gastroenteritis. Just this morning i realized… maybe they thought it was sars. Maybe it was SARS. If so… they didn’t tell me anything. they just gave my baby the medication via drip then asked us to go home. My baby is now ok but what if he didn’t get well. what if something happened to him… who would i balme? shouldn’t they be more transparent to the patients? i get goose bumps everytime i think about what happened.

Posted by: anna on April 8, 2003 05:07 PM

Anna: I am not a doctor but I know Ribavirin may be used for a wide variety of virus-related deseases. Prescription of ribavirin did not necessarily mean your boy was ill with SARS, or the doctor intentionally held back the facts. However, it is strongly recommended you should consult with your doctor at home before using any drugs prescribed by a Chinese doctor, esp for your boy. In addition, note that injection is Chinese doctors’ favorite but has proved to be extremely dangerous here in China as you might get hepatitis or HIV in this way, even if you use disposable syringes in a seemingly good hospital. See a doctor from your home country or make an IDD call to your own doctor, you will find out the difference.

Posted by: Mainlander on April 8, 2003 09:11 PM

Text in contesy for Anna and Mainlander. I assume by posting to the board, you granted me the right to quote your comment here. Let me know if you’d like to remove it from this article.

Well. First of all, I’d like to thank Anna and Mainlander to share what they think about the situation with us. I can understand Anna’s concerns about her body – definitely I can feel tha anxiousity. I agree with Mainlander to some extend that you need to be very careful recently even with a doctor. However, I just want to raise the topic of culture shock here and would like everyone of you to comment to express what do you think about it.

Culture shock, or something else?

Whenever someone moves to a different place, especial to a different country, the culture shock will be huge. The shock will be extereme if you move from a western country to China – the typical eastern culture and the developing country.

You will find lots of strange things that you can not understand – the way drivers drive, the way people talking with you, the habits people have here, – almost everything.

This reminded me of an example – may not be properiate to mention here – but just some hints. When the virus of AIDS began to spread to the world, people here in China were so worried. It is generally believed that ALL foreigners are very “dangerous”. I still remember the fear when I saw a foreigner on street in the city. I know some people were very hesitate to shake hand with foreigners although they know AIDS won’t spread via hand shaking. (HIV/AIDS kills an estimated 8,000 people every day; 3 million people per year.) Don’t get me wrong – I completely disagree with the idea now and believe the outbreak of the virus in one place should be regarded as the problem of the whole nation. However, lack of information and mutal understanding causes fear. SARS may be the similar case now, although they are so different in many aspect.

Doctors, believe them or not?

I think the Chinese doctors should still be realiable although some precautions can be taken, such as consulting home doctors. At least they see thousands of patients very month. I do agree that they need to improve their professionalism.

Take precautions, but be calm

My personal suggestion is, take all precautions you can, but be calm. The situation is bad, but MAYBE not as bad as you think – the combination of the panic and the culture shock gave everybody too much pressure.

P.S. I worried if this article is flaming article. I didn’t mean to offend anybody. I just wanted to discuss on the culture shock factors in the SARS-times.

The sunny weather continues. The rumor of SARS discontinued. With the recent official news on SARS from the Ministry of Health, the ban for news on the topic of SARS is lifted. Newspapers, TVs, radios and websites rush to report SARS in one night, just as the speed of spreading Bill Gate’s news.

I haven’t tried metro since the first day I heard about SARS. Yesterday, I had a try. I didn’t see any one with a mask then. It is said that about 5-20 people wearing facial masks in metro during the rush hours.

In the bus, I didn’t find any one wearing masks too. People insists to open the window eve in the air-conditioned bus. The only two masks I have ever seen is in the bund areas. The official news reports again and again that there is NO SARS in Shanghai. Shanghai is clean and safe. Don’t need to wear masks…..

I also see another large group of visitor from U.S. in the Ever Bright Hotel. One of them was wearing NATO logo clothes.

P.S. Below is the new version of home page on my blog. Hopefully, it will be online in one week.