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China hiding sars { April 18 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/18/international/18CND-BEIJ.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/18/international/18CND-BEIJ.html
April 18, 2003
China Cautions Officials Not to Hide SARS Cases
By ERIK ECKHOLM
BEIJING, April 18 — China's top leaders, seeking to quell an international uproar over the honesty of their medical reports as well as to halt a dangerous new virus, have issued their strongest warning yet about severe acute respiratory syndrome and have explicitly cautioned officials not to cover up the spread of the disease.
With large front-page headlines this morning, the People's Daily and other newspapers described an urgent meeting on SARS held Thursday by the country's supreme ruling body, the nine-member Standing Committee of the Politburo.
In the symbolic forms of Chinese politics, the message could hardly have been delivered with more force or fanfare, and the word to officials down the line was stern.
"The meeting explicitly warned against the covering up of SARS cases and demanded the accurate, timely and honest reporting of the SARS situation," said the account issued by the New China News Agency.
The top leaders called the spread of the new disease a serious threat to "China's reform, development and stability" and said that party and government leaders around the country "will be held accountable for the overall situation in their jurisdictions."
The articles prominently noted that Hu Jintao, the party chief and state president, presided over the meeting, thus putting his personal stamp on the directives.
Publicity about SARS and infection-control efforts here in Beijing have visibly increased in recent days, though the effectiveness remains to be seen. In a sign that old ways in this secretive system die hard, the Chinese media still have not been allowed to mention the scathing findings of a World Health Organization team. At a news conference Wednesday, the team said that Beijing may have up to 200 SARS cases rather than the 37 officially reported. It also described the city's surveillance and control efforts as seriously lacking.
Nor has the Beijing Government or the Ministry of Health acted yet to correct its disease numbers for Beijing. One major problem, the WHO team found, was that scores of patients being treated in hospitals run by the military in Beijing were not included in city and national reports. The team contradicted the repeated public statements, by senior health ministry and city officials, that the military hospital data had been incorporated.
The WHO group also said that many cases labeled as "suspect," and not included in disease reports, should be reported as confirmed SARS cases.
Many of the recommendations made by WHO and other international experts, such as to guarantee care for impoverished SARS patients so they will not avoid hospitalization, and to adopt swift, daily, nationwide reporting on new cases, were fully endorsed in the ruling body's statement Thursday.
The extent of reporting in distant provinces has already increased, though no one knows how may cases may be missed in regions where health facilities are scarce and often substandard.
Chinese credibility on SARS was first questioned in February and March as it became evident that the virus had spread quickly in the southeastern province of Guangdong, where the disease apparently originated and where more than 1,300 cases have been reported, constituting the bulk of China's current official total of 1,457 cumulative cases.
From Guangdong, travelers took the disease to Hong Kong, Singapore and elsewhere as well as to different parts of China. More frankness and public urgency early on, medical experts say, might have helped contain the disease.
In recent weeks, a WHO team found, Guangdong has taken effective countermeasures against SARS and its reports are reliable and open. But new questions arose in Beijing, where officials seemed determined to minimize the threat.
China has borne growing economic costs as tourists and business travelers cancel visits. Its record of dissembling has also drawn angry words from neighboring countries where some say its early secrecy imperiled their citizens where some say its early secrecy imperiled their citizens.
One motive for Beijing's evasions, diplomats and doctors here speculate, was to avoid the placement of Beijing, the capital city, on WHO's travel advisory list, which now recommends against "nonessential travel" to Guangdong and Hong Kong.
But the tactic appears to have backfired, with official credibility demolished and rumors running rampant, here and among prospective visitors, about SARS in the city. The very uncertainty about the situation in Beijing and other parts of China could lead the world body to advise against travel here, though that has not happened yet.
In Beijing itself, the belated and still incomplete publicity about SARS seems mainly to be kindled fears. In the last few days, a significant minority of subway and bus riders have started wearing surgical masks, and crowds are reported to be down at shopping centers.
Mary Ma, 28, a seller of Mary Kay Cosmetics, wore a mask on the subway this afternoon, but lowered it when approaching a potential customer.
"I only wear a mask on the subway or when shopping in air conditioned department stores," she said. "My friends all wear masks on the subway."
Based on sketchy product claims in news reports, some people were buying incense, which someone has suggested may kill the virus, while others bought an herbal medicine that purportedly featured a testimonial from a doctor.
Now, by all accounts, the country's uppermost political leaders say they are ready to confront SARS with more urgency and openness. The test will come not only in Beijing in coming days but also in far-flung cities and provinces, where the incentives for officials and institutions are not always in accord with national policy.
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company |
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