In The News

Beijing Closes Schools as SARS Cases Rise

Erik Eckholm April 23, 2003
After revealing an increase in SARS cases in Beijing, Chinese officials have shut down the city's primary and secondary schools for at least two weeks. The city recently admitted it had concealed the severity of the epidemic, and is now struggling to contain both the disease and related public panic. In an effort to maintain a semblance of routine, and aided by a recent increase in computer...

As Baghdad Awaits Aid, Feeling Grows Against U.S.

Jane Perlez April 23, 2003
While the US shifts from war to reconstruction in Iraq, many worries surface. Maintaining stability between the competing Islamic sects of Shia and Sunni is one problem, especially as Iran sends agents to promote its cause amongst Iraqi Shias. Settling the issue of UN involvement and sanctions is another since Russia has asserted that sanctions only be lifted once UN inspectors have confirmed the...

Health Officials Seek Help from U.S. to Control Virus

Lawrence Altman April 23, 2003
Responding to studies which show that the SARS virus can survive for up to 24 hours on objects and recently infected health care workers in two Toronto hospitals, Dr. James Young, the Ontario commissioner of public safety, invited a Center for Disease Control (CDC) team from Atlanta to discuss and help strengthen infection control measures. The US and Canada have been working together and...

Sars Sackings

Ching Cheong April 22, 2003
According to this article in Singapore's Straits Times, China's mishandling of the Sars epidemic is in part due to the communist country's heavy-handed control of its media and its proclivity for " putting its image above all else, including the lives of its people." Citing political corruption and ambition as the hallmark of China's communist party, the author...

Beijing Hoodwinks WHO Inspectors

Susan Jakes April 21, 2003
According to this report in Time magazine, dozens of Sars patients in Beijing were moved from their hospital beds just hours before officials from the World Health Organization arrived to inspect their wards. Despite fears of reprisal, doctors in several Beijing hospitals spoke out against their government's handling of the health care crisis. Lack of access to Sars patients in China has...

Sars: A New Threat to Asian Prosperity

Michael Richardson April 21, 2003
Greater openness in tourism and trade, on which much of Asia's recent economic growth has been based, is coming back to haunt countries from South Korea to Thailand. The extent of the economic fall-out from the Sars epidemic is only just becoming apparent, but WHO estimates already place the global costs at $30 billion and rising. With China's true infection numbers still unknown and...

Health Group Certain of Agent in Respiratory Ailment

Lawrence K. Altman April 17, 2003
The SARS virus is definitely caused by a new form of the coronavirus family, says the director of the World Health Organization. Immediately after the virus was discovered in Hong Kong in March, WHO put together a team of 13 laboratories around the world to search for the root of the virus. Experiments on monkeys in Rotterdam confirmed identified coronavirus as the culprit. Thanks to advances...