Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Hong Kong (Fides Service) – The people of Hong Kong are ready for any emergency but there is no panic, local sources told Fides Service. “There is some concern after two new cases of SARS Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome were reported and confirmed in mainland China. However the situation is nothing like last year. Everything is under control and there would seem to be no danger of an epidemic like the one in 2002-2203 triggered also by negligence and silence on the part of the Chinese government ”. What Hong Kongers are worrying about is the news of cases of bird flu in Vietnam and Korea which brings reminds many of the older citizens of the former British territory of the bird flu epidemic in Hong Kong in 1997-98 which killed 18 people.
In both cases, SARS and bird flu, researchers say the infection of humans could be connected with cultural and eating customs in Asian countries.
The SARS epidemic in China, observers say, can be traced to the treatment of animals for human consumption. Scarcity of hygiene in food markets where live domestic and wild animals, birds and reptiles, often sick or dying are kept in tiny cages waiting to be sold and slaughtered in front of the buyer, is undoubtedly a factor which contributed to the outbreak of the first hotbed of infection. Sars has killed around 800 people worldwide and infected at least 8,400 since it first emerged in November 2002.
To prevent future outbreaks of infections, these eating customs should be banned and wild and domestic animals kept under strict control.
Experts are still not sure one hundred percent if the animals infected humans or humans infected the animals. But there would seem to be a connection between wild animals, for SARS the animals are zibets, and human diseases. In China people eat zibets and humans could be infected during the slaughter or cooking of the animal.
The World Health Organisation has said, as yet no certain conclusions have been reached. zibets could be carriers of the infection and other species may amplify and spread the infection.
(Fides Service 15/1/2004 lines 30 words 380)
