Recently talked to my aunt in HK. Seems that Tai Po is worst hit in HK! I can count my lucky stars and my BF's) that we got back on New Year's day before this whole unfortunate incident took off in Feb. My little cousin has not been attending school for over 3 weeks now, as his school is near the hospital. But he will be returning with the other pupils on a 1/2 day basis. My aunt was saying it has been very disruptive there, even as simply as going out to get shopping for cooking the dinner means coming home, wash all the clothes you wore and shower and wash your hair. Here is a list of buildings affect in HK (note Tai Po is quite high!) - List of Buildings with Confirmed Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Patients (from http://www.info.gov.hk)
But worldwide, this has brought home the fact of this danger, even though it is true that the flu kills more every year than what this virus has done so far. Found this interesting article from Mercury News in San Fancisco of how the people of Chinese descent are reacting to this - Bay Area SARS fears hit home
Ok, got it! This is traditional Chinese, and it looks better. And it sounds much better as well.
愛爾蘭出生的中國人的blog
(Fonts are not installed on my Windoze box, so it looks awful! But hey, it works.)
And fixed up the Simplified Chinese from previous blog entry:
爱尔兰出生的中国人的blog
爱尔兰出生的中国Blog
Thing is, can anyone give me the traditional Chinese translation of "Irish Born Chinese Blog"? I actually do know how to read this sentence before everyone starts commenting to me on what it means. But is it sound?
Got "Traditional Chinese" and "Simplified Chinese" on my message board now. :D
Um, not that I will understand what people will be writing but I do have friends and relatives who can read Chinese... ;) Heh... the only thing is that I do not know how to type Chinese so I cannot test this. So feedback welcome!
Ok, I know... I don't want to revolve my site around this unfortunate crisis, but just to let you know that is was Ching Ming yesterday. Bascially on April 5th, Chinese will go an visit their ancestor's graves, and pay their respects. (Discover Hong Kong's site gives a clear brief overview of what Ching Ming is. )
So yesterday I went down to Cork with my mom and brother to visit my Uncle's and cousin's grave and paid our respects as well. We also paid our respects to our beloved close friends. It was all very perfect and tranquil. We did not burn and incenses, or burn paper money, but we all brought along flowers and thoughts for our loved ones.
But it is also good to hear that not everyone is afraid of SARS to pay their respects, here is a Canadian article I found - City's Chinese community forgoes fears to honour dead
Very worrying at the moment. My brother has cancelled his trip to HK (phew). And I have been getting updates from a Chinese friend via mail. But it is good to know that everyone everywhere (bar Beijing - SARS: 1.3 billion Chinese left in the dark) are on high alert. Even my local paper show that our regional hospital is preparing an action plan in Limerick.
From a mail forwarded on (All email adresses stripped out :) )...
(More info on the Amoy Garden breakout)
(April 1st 2003)
We (Police) have confirmed the reason for the spread at Amoy Gardens.
There was a leakage of the sewage pipe from the infected PWH nurse's home.
So everyone stepped on the sewage water near the main entrance and
brought the virus into their respective houses.
There is no evidence of "Airborne" at this stage.
I just have the briefing about this finding.
F.Y.I.
Neil T.M. CHAN
Dear all,
Hundreds of staff are working with me and they are all facing the same risk
f infection. It is really sad that over last 2-week fight 8% of ourstaff
have been infected despite droplet precaution, probably due topitfalls like
air leak on N95 mask, rubbing eyes/nose after touching the mask, etc.
So you can imagine how contagious this virus is! The outbreak in Amoy Garden
is not surprising to me because this is exactly what has happened in ward
8A. The only difference is that the number of infectious index cases now in
Amoy Garden is 60 times of PWH's.
We do believe this infection has wide spectrum of clinical presentation
ranging from sorethroat and low grade fever to full blown ARDS/BOOP.
We think the clinical presentation depends partly on the dose of inoculum.
The
ultimate protection against this new virus is our immunity and inevitably
all of us will be infected eventually. The purpose of preventive measure is
to minimize the dose of virus so as to avoid severe complication.
Could you please forward these messages to all your friends and relatives
and ask them to distribute further?
1. Always wear a well-fitted mask (N95 or 3 ply surgical) in escalator, bus,
MTR, train, office, restaurant and shopping mall. Don't go to cinema.
Push the button in the lift using your key to avoid any direct contact with
your
bare hand. If you can tolerate a latex glove, wear it.
2. Don't touch your mask, it traps a lot of droplets.
3. All the surfaces within a distance of 5 feet from a patient are highly
infectious because of droplets. Wash your hands frequently. Don't rub your
eyes, touch your nose or mouth before washing hands.
4. Clean the door handles, furnitures and floor with diluted (1 in 100)
bleaching detergent. Dettol is NOT useful. Wash your clothes immediately
after going home.
5. Patient is highly infectious 2-3 days (in contrast to what EK Yeoh said)
even before developing illness. Treat those without wearing mask potentially
infectious even if they look healthy.
Take care,
Dr. Justin Wu
Tony Mok
Prince of Wales Hospital
Chinese University of Hong Kong
I AM at Prince of Wales every day, closely involved with all actions and
still in good shape. Let me
clarify the subject matter:
1. There is no evidence that the infection is airborne. Only direct exposure
to respiratory droplet
has been related to infection.
2. The figure released from HA is definitely correct. Even stupid people
should be able to distinguish
between dead person and dying person. In fact, a couple of patients in ICU
has improved and got
better. Look like the dying patient won't die afterall.
3. A mask (N95) can definitely reduce the risk of infection, even viral
infection. Imaging that we have
to look after the 100 sick people with atypical pneumonia. If the mask is
not effective, all of us will
come down with the illness. The fact is that there is minimal number of new
cases among medical
staffs at Prince of Wales since we install the policy on mask.
4. The current treatment with ribavirin and steroid is definitely helping.
Particularly if the patients
receive treatment early, a good percentage showed good response and
reduction in severity.
Only when the patients presented very late, the treatment would be less
effective.
5. Running nose is NOT a symptom of this illness.(another fact on his/her
ignorance) However,
you should definitely seek medical attention if you have severe headache,
muscle ache and fever
Advice:
1. Wear a mask if you are in contact with anyone with symptoms. Also wear a
mask if you are confined
to a closed atmosphere with no control whom you are with.
2. See doctor when you have any of the symptoms.
3. Stop listening to those stupid rumors.
Tony Mok
Prince of Wales Hospital
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Yes. There are many "rumours", "news stories". But most importantly, the
"facts" need to be disseminated properly:
1. There are likely to be infected people in the community (people who
knowingly/unknowingly contacted patients
when precautions were not taken). They should be identified as soon as
possible and admitted to facilities with
ability to treat them (ie major public hospitals). We have family members
infected because people with clear
symptoms stayed home.
2. The symptoms are fever, shiver, muscle aches, with fever NOT responding
to antibiotics. Other respiratory
symptoms are not specific.
3. N95 or surgical masks should be worn in high risk areas, like hospitals,
when contacting patients(this is what we
all do in public hospitals). Hands must be washed thoroughly after contacts.
4. The early cases in PWH are s erious since treatment was started late, but
the later cases are mostly doing well.
And now with the virus identified by our virologists in CUHK and more
sensitive tests being developed and
verified, there are discussions on the safe time for some treated patients
to be discharged (please be assured
that we will not discharge ANYONE until we are very confident that they are
OK).
5. At this time there is NO evidence that ANY prophylactic drugs have any
effect.
I'm happy for you to send these messages to your friends, but I will not be
available to answer individual enquiries.
They can call the government and HA hotlines.
Anthony TC Chan
Chairman and Chief of Service
Department of Clinical Oncology
Prince of Wales Hospital
Chinese University of Hong Kong