NYTimes.com Article: Chinese SARS Patient Says He Never Ate Civet

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Chinese SARS Patient Says He Never Ate Civet

 

January 7, 2004

By REUTERS

 

 

 

 

 

Filed at 3:05 a.m. ET

 

GUANGZHOU, China (Reuters) - The Chinese TV producer who

contracted SARS had never eaten civet cat, state media

reported Wednesday, as thousands of the animals were culled

on fears they may carry a form of the virus that can jump

to humans.

 

In the Philippines, authorities said a woman suspected of

contracting SARS while working as a maid in Hong Kong does

not have the deadly flu-like virus, easing fears of

regional contagion.

 

A news conference was planned later Wednesday in Manila to

unveil details of a battery of tests on the unidentified

42-year-old woman.

 

``I can confirm that we're going to report that it's not

SARS,'' Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit told Reuters.

 

China's official Xinhua news agency said the only contact

with wildlife the SARS patient could recall was with a

mouse he threw out of a window.

 

The victim, surnamed Luo, was confirmed as having SARS this

week and is due to be released Thursday from hospital in

the southern province of Guangdong, where the disease

emerged in November 2002 and went on to kill 800 people

around the world.

 

Chinese health authorities said a gene sample from the

32-year-old man resembled that of a coronavirus found in

civets, a local delicacy.

 

China has given a Saturday deadline for the slaughter of

about 10,000 civets, a course of action that has worried

the World Health Organization which fears the cull could

help spread the disease.

 

``Still unaware of the cause of his catching SARS,

environmentalist Luo said he had never touched or eaten

civet cats in his life and recalled only having thrown a

baby mouse out of the window by hand,'' Xinhua said.

 

The China Daily said the civet extermination campaign was

being carried out mainly by ``braising and steaming'' the

animals and quoted experts as saying releasing the animals

into the wild was not an option.

 

``During the whole process, there is no direct contact

between the employees and the animals,'' it said.

 

Guangdong authorities have said the civets are being

destroyed by being drowned in chemical disinfectant and

then incinerated.

 

SARS ``NOT THAT FEARFUL''

 

The stock market has shrugged off the SARS case and

businesses in Guangzhou -- sent reeling during the height

of the outbreak last year -- appeared unruffled.

 

SARS infected about 8,000 people around the world last

year, about two-thirds of them in China, and savaged

airline and tourism industries around Asia.

 

``Everything remains as normal,'' an official of the

Guangdong foreign economic and trade administration told

Reuters. ``There is no plan to cancel any international

conferences or exhibitions for the time being.''

 

The Guangdong branch of state travel chain CITS signed

``anti-SARS'' guarantees with hotels, restaurants and tour

operators to assure customers their destinations were free

of the disease.

 

``None of our customers have canceled their trips abroad,

nor have foreign tourists canceled their trips to

Guangdong,'' a branch official said.

 

Air France Tuesday inaugurated a new Paris-Guangzhou

service which will run five times a week from June.

 

Luo, 32, complained of a headache and fever on December 16

and was admitted to an isolation ward at the No. 1 Hospital

of Zhongshan University on December 20.

 

Initially diagnosed as having pneumonia, he was transferred

to the No. 8 People's Hospital on December 24.

 

``The disease is not that fearful,'' Luo said in a

telephone interview with the news agency from the Guangdong

capital, Guangzhou, Tuesday.

 

``It was quite a shock to realize that I might have

contracted SARS, when I was sent to the isolation ward,''

said Luo.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-sars-china.html?ex=10\

74464224 & ei=1 & en=2a48ad927e01f5c9

 

 

 

 

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