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April 27, 2003

April 27 SARS Update

Headlines:

  • Azerbaijan has 5 possible SARS cases.

  • Taiwan’s toll of probable SARS cases climbs, from 41 to 55, in the past two days. The first Taiwanese SARS death was recorded on April 27.

  • AP: Asian health ministers meet and agree to coordinate their anti-SARS efforts.
    "Should SARS continue to spread, the global economic consequences could be great in a closely interconnected and interdependent world," Malaysian Health Minister Chua Jui Meng said.

  • Sunday smile -- SARS is not as bad as they say: The retired Iraqi Information Minister has been employed by this Web site, where he defends the SARS-free image of Toronto, against the infidel WHO.

The complete 4/27 SARS Update is here.

Azerbaijan: No cases reported to WHO.
5 people have been hospitalised in Baku, with suspected SARS, according to this Reuter's story.


Taiwan:
April 25: 49 probable SARS cases (increase of 8 cases, or 19.5%, in past 24 hours)
April 26: 55 probable SARS cases (increase of 6 cases or 12.2%, in past 24 hours)
April 27: 55 probable SARS cases, 72 suspected. (inconsistently, an increase of 2 probable cases is reported on the Taiwan CDC Web site, both in English and in Chinese.)

The first Taiwanese death from SARS occurred on April 27. The Taiwanese government will ban travellers from Canada, Hong Kong, China and Singapore. Taiwanese natives, returning from those countries, will enter 10 days of quarantine.

All family members of workers from Ho Ping hospital have been ordered into quarantine. As of April 27, there were 1661 people in quarantine.

Taiwan's preventive medicine center has activated its top-security biological warfare laboratory to help deal with the SARS crisis, according to the Taipei Times.


ASEAN Health Ministers' Meeting:
According to the Straits Times, the Asian health ministers agreed to,
* Compulsory screening of departing travellers at airports and seaports.
* Barring anyone with Sars-like symptoms from travelling.
* Mandatory health-declaration forms for visitors from hot spots.
* Setting up an Asean centre for disease control, to help fight new disease outbreaks


Iraqi Information Minister is now working for SARS public relations firm:

The retired Iraqi Information Minister has been employed by this Web site, where he defends the SARS-free image of Toronto, against the infidel WHO. The Information Minister says in another photo, that, "There are only 22 cases of SARS in Beijing."

For a possibly bigger laugh, you might want to read how the CIA predicted this epidemic.

The complete 4/27 SARS Update is here.

 Posted by docbear @ 04/27/2003 10:25 AM | TrackBack