The announcement and spread of the SARS epidemic

When the outbreak first broke out in December, the Guangzhou City and Guangdong Provincial Governments did not release relevant information, nor did they report the situation to Hong Kong. At the time, the government banned media reporting on the illness and cut off news footage from Hong Kong television stations. The local government also asked the media not to over-exaggerate the epidemic in the area to avoid causing panic among the people. By the end of December, the "SARS" epidemic began to circulate on the Internet. Since the disease was not understood at the time, the relevant comments were relatively confusing. Subsequently, the Chinese government banned discussions on the epidemic in the country, and all forums silenced news about "SARS." At that time, one of China's largest official forums, the People's Daily Online Qiangguo Forum, had several users criticized for discussing "SARS." The account was blocked by the administrator due to the epidemic. In December, the world's first patient, Huang Xingchu, was hospitalized after becoming ill. On January 2, 2003, Heyuan City reported the relevant situation to the Provincial Department of Health. Soon after, several cases of medical staff being infected appeared in Zhongshan City at the same time. Guangdong Province dispatched an expert investigation team We went to Zhongshan City to investigate and issued an investigation report to all health and medical units across the province on January 23, requiring relevant units to pay attention and conscientiously implement the prevention and control of the disease.

Starting from January 12, individual critically ill patients from other places began to be transferred to some large hospitals in Guangzhou for treatment. As of February 9, there were more than 100 cases of COVID-19 in Guangzhou, many of which were medical staff. At this time, there were 2 deaths among the cases discovered in Guangzhou. At this time, the Ministry of Health began to pay attention to the cases in Guangdong, and sent an expert team led by Vice Minister Ma Xiaowei to fly to Guangzhou on the afternoon of February 9 to help find the cause and guide prevention and treatment work.

Since February 9, rumors have emerged that smoking white vinegar and drinking isatis root can prevent strange diseases, and there are already signs of panic buying in the market. On the 10th, panic buying reached its climax. A large pack of isatis root, which usually cost less than 10 yuan, suddenly jumped to 30 or 40 yuan. The price of white vinegar also climbed steadily, from 10 yuan to 80 yuan and 100 yuan. On that day, a photographer actually took a historical photo of a bottle of white vinegar costing 1,000 yuan.

On February 11, the main media in Guangdong Province reported on the occurrence of SARS cases in some areas. The report stated that as of 3:00 pm on February 10, 305 cases and 305 deaths had been reported. 5 cases. Among them, 105 cases were infected among medical staff, and none died. Among the 305 patients, 59 have recovered and been discharged. Those who have not been discharged have all received effective treatment and are in stable condition. The youngest person who died was a 10-year-old boy in Guangzhou, and the oldest was a 59-year-old man in Foshan.

On the morning of February 11, the Guangzhou Municipal Government held a press conference to announce the situation of SARS in Guangzhou, saying that the conditions of all patients were under control. It was emphasized that the infection of more than 300 people in Guangzhou's tens of millions of people is a very small proportion. SARS only occurs locally, and no new cases have been reported in Heyuan, Zhongshan and other cities. It also explained the reason why the situation was not announced before February: most of the patients in Heyuan, Zhongshan and other places have recovered or improved without recurrence after treatment. SARS is not a legally reportable infectious disease, and the 305 cases are not counted. many. The person in charge stressed that the epidemic situation will be announced in accordance with the Infectious Diseases Act.

On the afternoon of the same day, the Guangdong Provincial Department of Health held a briefing. Zhong Nanshan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that citizens will not be infected if they go to public places to carry out normal activities, and announced that Guangdong universities, middle schools and primary schools will reopen as scheduled. Experts also pointed out that from a clinical perspective, it may be caused by a virus, or it may be caused by a subtype or variant of the virus. The treatment of patients all adopts the method of "prescribing the right medicine to the case". On February 12, 2003, the head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention predicted in an interview with reporters that there would be no large-scale epidemic of respiratory infectious diseases in the country in the near future, but there may be small-scale epidemics of respiratory infectious diseases in some areas.

Because the epidemic had not yet fully manifested itself, the Chinese government did not report the epidemic in Guangdong to the World Health Organization on a daily basis before February 2003. On February 10, the Chinese government notified the World Health Organization of the disease situation. In the initial data provided, only the incidence status in Guangdong Province was listed.

A World Health Organization investigation team visiting Beijing also failed to enter Guangdong to investigate. This was around the Chinese Spring Festival, and the large population movement during the Spring Festival led to the spread of the epidemic. Rumors and panic spread faster than the epidemic, and panic buying of vinegar and isatis root also began in Jiangxi and other places. On the day of the announcement, there was panic buying in Guangdong and other places.

On February 12, because the epidemic was not considered serious, the friendly match between the Chinese football team and the world champion Brazilian football team went on as normal. The two sides fought 0:0, and the venue was full of fans, more than 50,000 people. On February 14, media reported that the SARS epidemic had little impact and that Guangzhou’s tourism market was not weak during the off-season. The "2003 Luo Dayou Guangzhou Concert" originally scheduled for February 18 at Tianhe Stadium has not been postponed, and all plans such as performance production and rehearsals have not changed. On February 14, 2003, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention stated that it had organized relevant experts to identify the specimens collected from the Guangdong site. It was said that as of that day, there had been no new cases in the local area for five consecutive days, and the total number of reported cases in Guangdong Province was still 305.

On February 21, Liu Jianlun, a retired professor from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University (Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital) who was infected, came to Hong Kong to attend a relative’s wedding and stayed in Room 911 of the Jinghua International Hotel in Hong Kong, where he transmitted the disease to seven other passengers. Liu Jianlun subsequently went to the Accident and Emergency Department of Kwong Wah Hospital for treatment on February 22 and died on March 4.

In late February, an American businessman based in Shanghai was confirmed to be infected after arriving in Hanoi, Vietnam via Hong Kong. Later, many medical staff at local hospitals in Hanoi were also infected. The patient later returned to Hong Kong for treatment, but still died on March 14. Carlo Vurbanni, a World Health Organization doctor stationed in Hanoi, first informed the WHO of the condition of local medical staff and named the disease SARS. The doctor later died of the disease on March 29.

On March 5, representatives from Guangdong at the National People’s Congress proposed a motion stating that international assistance should be considered for early warning and treatment of infectious diseases without affecting national security.

On March 6, Beijing received the report of its first imported SARS case

On March 10, Hong Kong’s two largest television organizations, TVB and ATV, simultaneously broadcast One piece of news: The Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin revealed that in the past few days, more than 10 medical staff had developed fever and upper respiratory tract infection symptoms, and the disease was found to be contagious.

On March 12, the World Health Organization issued a global warning, and then the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued another health warning. The World Health Organization recommended isolation and treatment of suspected cases, and established a network of medical staff to assist in research into the SARS epidemic. The network includes a secure website for X-ray studies and international teleconferencing. On March 15, the World Health Organization officially named the disease SARS.

On March 13, the Hospital Affiliated to the National Taiwan University School of Medicine reported the first SARS case (a Taiwanese businessman surnamed Qin); however, due to proper handling, there were no other cases except for the family members and colleagues of the Taiwanese businessman surnamed Qin. Other infections occur. As of March 13, the number of medical staff suffering from SARS in Hong Kong increased to 115. On March 20, SARS entered the community, and five children aged 2 to 15 were confirmed to be infected. After that, SARS quickly broke into office buildings, schools, and public places, with more than 60 cases increasing daily at its peak. Even Ho Siu-wai, director of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority, could not escape this disaster and was hospitalized due to illness.

On March 14, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa personally came to the Prince of Wales Hospital to visit the medical staff and understand the actual situation.

After March 15, reports of "Severe Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)" appeared in many parts of the world, spreading from Southeast Asia to Australia, Europe and North America. Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, the United States, Canada and other countries have successively reported multiple cases of SARS.

On March 15, the emergency department of Peking University Affiliated People’s Hospital admitted a suspected patient. The patient surnamed Li is over 70 years old and returned home from Hong Kong to visit relatives. Later, the patient surnamed Li was called the Poison King of Beijing.

Since the severity of SARS was not clear at first, the hospital did not take corresponding strict measures. As a result, a large number of medical staff in the hospital were infected. On March 17, Li was transferred to Dongzhimen Hospital Affiliated to Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, where he caused large-scale pollution. Within a week, 11 medical staff who participated in the treatment, including Liu Qingquan, director of the emergency department at Dongzhimen Hospital, were all infected with SARS. Among them, emergency doctor Duan Lijun and a nurse unfortunately died in the line of duty. Li also died on March 20 due to his old age and serious condition.

On March 18, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the World Health Organization informed the Chinese Ministry of Health of the recent SARS outbreak in relevant countries and spoke highly of the Chinese government’s handling of SARS in Guangdong. Effective measures to take in case of pneumonia. On March 19, Health Minister Zhang Wenkang met with the representative of the World Health Organization in China and introduced the situation of SARS in some areas of Guangdong Province.

On March 20, the World Health Organization announced that only half of the staff in many hospitals in Vietnam and Hong Kong were working normally. The organization also warned that medical personnel who come into direct contact with patients without protective measures may be exposed to the disease.

On March 25, Ye Xin, the head nurse of the emergency department of the Ershadao Branch of the Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, died of SARS infection, becoming the first medical staff member to die on the job and causing great shock.

On March 27, the Hong Kong government announced that it was prohibited to visit SARS patients. People who had been in close contact with SARS patients were required to report to designated Department of Health clinics every day for 10 days and began to visit all immigration control points. Implement quarantine declaration measures. On March 27, it was announced that primary and secondary schools and kindergartens would be closed.

On March 31, the Hong Kong government quarantined an apartment building (Block E) in Amoy Gardens. More than 100 people have been infected in the apartment. The residents of the apartment were later moved to a resort center and the apartment was fully disinfected. The authorities believe that the spread of the disease is mainly related to the design of the building structure. When patients in Ward 8A visited Tower E, they used the toilet in the unit and were said to be spread through excrement or wastewater. The incident also raised concerns about the possibility of the virus spreading through the air, but the WHO later denied this possibility.

On March 31, China launched the "Technical Plan for the Prevention and Control of SARS" and announced it on the Internet that day. It is said that the cause of SARS is still unclear, but a prevention and treatment technical plan has been formulated based on summarizing the prevention and control work in the previous stages.

On March 31, Professor Hong Tao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that the cause of SARS has been successfully isolated and is likely to be a new variant of chlamydia.

In fact, on March 25, the US Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Microbiology of the University of Hong Kong announced that the SARS pathogen was a "coronavirus" from pigs, but this did not attract the attention of researchers in Beijing. It was not until April 16 that the World Health Organization announced in Geneva that a variant of the coronavirus was the pathogen causing SARS.

On April 1, the U.S. government recalled all non-essential diplomatic personnel stationed in Hong Kong and Guangdong and their families. The U.S. government also warned U.S. citizens not to visit Guangdong or Hong Kong unless necessary. The Swiss government has also banned Hong Kong manufacturers from participating in the upcoming Swiss Watch Fair, fearing that the disease will spread to Switzerland. On the evening of April 1, more than 700 Taotai residents were evacuated. They took minibuses provided by the government and hurriedly arrived at two resorts in Sai Kung and Lei Yue Mun for temporary accommodation.

On April 2, the Chinese government promised to fully cooperate with the World Health Organization. China has reported all cases to WHO. China's Guangdong province had 361 new cases and nine deaths in March. At the same time, people were also infected in Beijing, Shanxi, and Hunan in China. But China's Ministry of Health said the disease has been basically brought under control in Guangdong. The World Health Organization also entered the Guangdong area to learn about the epidemic and advised tourists not to travel or work in Hong Kong and Guangdong. On April 3, experts from the World Health Organization arrived in Guangdong to inspect the situation and discuss the development of the epidemic with local experts. On the afternoon of April 5, Chinese Vice Minister of Health Ma Xiaowei met with five experts from the World Health Organization in Guangzhou.

By early April, China’s official media had begun to gradually increase their reports on SARS cases, but the general statement was that the epidemic was under control. On April 3, the Chinese Ministry of Health held a press conference in Beijing and announced that experts from the World Health Organization had arrived in Guangdong and had excluded Beijing from the epidemic area after inspecting the situation in Beijing. Minister of Health Zhang Wenkang said that the epidemic has been effectively controlled and it is safe to work and travel in China and Beijing. He said that there were only 12 cases of SARS in Beijing at that time and 3 deaths. He also said with a smile that it was safe whether wearing a mask or not. of. Zhang Wenkang also pointed out that SARS was effectively controlled in mainland China, but did not say it was effectively eliminated or completely eradicated, nor was it said that SARS was effectively controlled and completely eradicated around the world. When explaining why the Ministry of Health did not report the epidemic, it said that SARS is not a statutory infectious disease and does not fall within the scope of reporting; the epidemic only occurs in local areas, and the "Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Law" stipulates that the local government where the epidemic occurs is announced, that is, Guangdong Province government. Wang Guoqing (Deputy Director of the State Council Information Office) also pointed out that from early February to April, various media in Guangdong had more than 500 reports and related articles on SARS. If reporters are interested, they can ask the Guangdong Provincial Information Office to provide a catalog of the articles. Many people believe that Zhang Wenkang's remarks are very misleading to the people and governments at home and abroad. In short, people do not pay enough attention to the epidemic.