MSNBC/Associated Press 1/11/04: thousands of civets slaughtered, and attention turns to rats, as new case emerges

[Guest guest]

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>New suspected SARS in China

>Another suspected case of SARS emerged in

>southern China on Sunday as international

>medical investigators scoured an apartment block

>to determine if it played any role in the

>infection of a man who lived there.

>http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3929570/

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A Chinese girl looks at stuffed civet cats on

display at an anti-SARS exhibition in Guangzhou,

the capital of China's southern province of

Guangdong, on Saturday. China Photo / Reuters

 

 

New suspected SARS case emerges in China

Officials in hard-hit province shift focus from civet cats to rats

 

The Associated Press

Updated: 4:27 p.m. ET Jan. 11, 2004

 

BEIJING - Medical investigators scrutinized an

apartment complex's sewage, water and garbage

systems Sunday, trying to track down the source

of China's first SARS case of the season, even as

reports of another suspected victim emerged.

 

advertisementMeanwhile, the province of

Guangdong, where the confirmed and the suspected

cases are all located, turned its attention from

the slaughter of civet cats - a wild animal that

is eaten as a local delicacy but is thought to be

a means of transmitting SARS - to eradicating a

more reviled form of vermin: rats.

 

The new suspected case was a 35-year-old man in

Guangdong, who has been isolated and hospitalized

in stable condition, said Dr. Thomas Tsang, a

consultant attached to the Department of Health

in Hong Kong. He said officials in neighboring

Guangdong had informed Hong Kong of the possible

case.

 

The new suspected patient of severe acute

respiratory syndrome does not work in a job that

involves handling wild animals, which are thought

to be a means of transmission for the virus,

Tsang said.

 

But China's Health Ministry informed the World

Health Organization on Sunday night that tests so

far on the man are inconclusive, WHO said. " They

have not classified him as a suspected SARS

case, " spokesman Bob Dietz said in Beijing.

 

" Press reports keep bubbling up, " Dietz said.

" There's always been a problem with case

definition with SARS - actually identifying a

case. So we want to understand clearly the basics

that Guangdong is using. "

 

Contradictory information

While information about SARS cases has emerged

from several different sources in recent days,

the apparently contradictory information that

emerged from Hong Kong and Beijing on Sunday

suggested a communications gap between provincial

and national health officials.

 

Last week, the central government announced the

other suspected case, a 20-year-old waitress, who

worked in a restaurant where civet cat and other

wild animals were served. She has been isolated

for treatment and is said to be doing well.

 

The only officially confirmed case of the season,

a 32-year-old television producer named Luo, left

the hospital last week and was pronounced

recovered. He told authorities he came into

contact with no wild animals, and the source of

his SARS remains a mystery.

 

On Sunday, his apartment block in Guangzhou,

Guangdong's provincial capital, was a flurry of

WHO activity as its investigators swept through,

interviewing managers and looking for sources of

infection in water systems, garbage facilities

and living quarters. They took swab samples from

stairwells and terraces, among other sites.

 

" Our environmental experts scoured the building, "

WHO spokesman Roy Wadia said in a telephone

interview from Guangzhou, Guangdong's capital.

" Based on the observations they made, the complex

seemed to be managed pretty well. "

 

Lab samples examined

He said WHO was working with the Guangdong Center

for Disease Control to examine all data collected

so far.

 

Thousands of civets were slaughtered in Guangdong during the past week.

At the same time, experts worked to process

laboratory samples taken from the restaurant

where the waitress worked. WHO called Friday for

more information on the waitress, saying it could

help determine how she was pronounced a suspected

case.

 

Investigators said they found no immediate

conclusions about whether her job was linked to

her illness. The establishment didn't specialize

in wild game but served some wildlife, including

civet cats.

 

Thousands of civets were slaughtered in Guangdong

during the past week on suspicions they could

have transmitted SARS to human beings. Although

the virus has been found in the weasel-like

mammals, there has been no definitive proof of

their status as a human vector.

 

Rats in 'millions of places'

" Basically, most of the civet cats in Guangdong

have been slaughtered, " said an official at the

Guangzhou Anti-SARS Office who gave only his

surname, Liu.

 

SARS is believed to have first appeared in

Guangdong before killing 774 people worldwide and

sickening more than 8,000.

 

SARS is believed to have first appeared in

Guangdong before killing 774 people worldwide and

sickening more than 8,000.

The Guangzhou-based newspaper Yangcheng Evening

News said on its Web site Sunday that a three-day

campaign on eliminating rats was drawing more

than 10,000 people. It said more than 10 tons of

poison-laced grain have been deployed in

" millions of places " to kill rats.

 

" Exercise caution in dealing with rat carcasses, " it said, quoting authorities.

 

Separately, the South Korean Environmental

Ministry said Sunday that it has banned the

import of civet cats, Chinese ferret badgers and

raccoon dogs because of their possible link to

SARS.

 

Violators face up two years in jail or a $4,200

fine, ministry officials said. No cases of SARS

have been found in South Korea.

 

© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

This material may not be published, broadcast,

rewritten or redistributed.

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