In The News

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...

Economies Sickened by a Virus, and Fear

Keith Bradsher April 21, 2003
Around the Asia-Pacific region, the economic impact of Sars is being immediately felt. In one Australian fishing area, lack of demand from Hong Kong restaurants – the industry's biggest customers – means that some fishermen might not make their home mortgage payments. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, in India, a software company executive worries about the wisdom of his company's...

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...

A Beijing Doctor Questions Data on Illness

Elisabeth Rosenthal April 10, 2003
Beijing is lying about number of cases, retired military doctor says.

Virus sows seeds of regional mistrust- Thai Prime Minister

April 9, 2003
According to Thailand’s Prime Minister, the spread of SARS is undermining regional cooperation in South East Asia due to the mistrust between different nations in the region. SARS has adversely affected the tourism industry in Thailand. Taiwan has protested its inclusion, by Japan, Thailand and China, as a SARS affected State. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has criticized China for...

Lessons from SARS

Christine Loh April 9, 2003
Although Hong Kong enjoys one of Asia's best public health systems, the spread of SARS has shown that even its well-run government has room for improvement. The former British colony's re-integration with China in 1997 has led to a booming expansion of trade and people flows across the border with southern China, but at the cost of increased vulnerability to epidemics such as SARS. To...