A rchive Date
[ 01-05-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ China ]
|
[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/04/30/76528-ap.html
Beijing hastily builds new hospital; U.S. stockpiles ventilators
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
Wed, April 30, 2003
BEIJING (AP) - China built a new hospital for its capital in just eight days to help handle SARS cases that have overwhelmed the city, while the United States said it was stockpiling ventilators to treat patients if it suffers a similar outbreak.
The death toll worldwide from the disease stood Thursday at 378 people, with the latest two deaths announced in Canada, where officials urged tourists to visit Toronto now that the World Health Organization has lifted its SARS-related travel advisory for the city.
China reported 11 new SARS fatalities and 166 additional cases of infection Wednesday. More than half of the new cases were in Beijing, where Mayor Wang Qishan said widespread panic has become a serious issue.
Only in mainland China is the respiratory disease continuing to spread uncontrolled, according to the WHO.
Hong Kong recorded seven new deaths, Taiwan two and Singapore one. Worldwide, more than 5,600 people were infected with the new virus, with roughly 2,500 of those recovered. Generally, more than nine out of 10 people recover from severe acute respiratory syndrome.
The WHO said Wednesday it would investigate reports in Hong Kong of 12 SARS patients who relapsed after being sent home from the hospital. Even so, officials say the worst in Hong Kong appears to be over, as is the case in Toronto and Singapore.
As leaders in Beijing struggled to bring in enough doctors and add more hospital beds to cope with its SARS epidemic, construction workers put finishing touches on the new 1,000-bed facility built in a former cornfield north of Beijing. Some 7,000 men and women worked around the clock to build it, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The rows of white, one-storey buildings are ready for their first 195 patients.
Worries about the disease prompted thousands of people to flee Beijing last week. Many who remain are staying home from work in hopes of avoiding the virus.
The mayor said in a written statement that the 21 hospitals in Beijing assigned to handle SARS didn't have enough beds for all suspected cases. Wang promised to add more hospital beds and bring in doctors and nurses from outside Beijing to help.
Officials in the United States said they were stockpiling ventilators, training health workers and encouraging hospitals to create isolation wards in case the SARS virus spreads there the way it has in China and Canada.
There are 52 probable cases in the United States, but there have been no deaths there from the disease.
The Department of Health and Human Services said it was buying an extra 3,000 ventilators to supplement those now available in the U.S. national stockpile.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson would not say how many ventilators are now in the stockpile but said the additional 3,000 was a big increase.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
|