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CHINA: Shanghai may have 90 cases

Only two officially reported, but the WHO has cast doubt on the figures and is investigating situation in financial capital
http://tinyurl.com/aa59

By Jason Leow (The StraitsTimes)

BEIJING - China's financial capital, Shanghai, probably has more Sars cases than the two officially reported so far.

Five days after Beijing's embarrassing admission that it had almost 10 times more cases than it had reported earlier, the talk now is that Shanghai has about 90 cases.

That could be the total if officials include patients from more than 10 military hospitals who were not previously included.

Five World Health Organisation (WHO) experts are investigating Shanghai's hospitals and checking official records that list only two Sars cases in the city of 16 million.

They will brief the press today, but the WHO website has already quoted a senior official casting doubt on the figures.

'Our team in China has clearly indicated that they feel there are probably more cases in Shanghai than have been reported,' Mr David Heymann, WHO's executive director of communicable diseases, was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

Shanghai authorities yesterday hinted that more suspected cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome could surface, now classification standards have been tightened.

The city's health bureau reported six more suspected cases, bringing the total to 16, on top of the two confirmed ones.

But heads could roll if the WHO investigations show that Shanghai has suppressed information.

Beijing mayor Meng Xuenong was sacked and Health Minister Zhang Wenkang had to step down for insisting previously that Sars was under control and the country was safe for travellers.

Shanghai mayor Han Zheng's job could be on the line if another reporting fiasco emerges.

On Tuesday, he had told state media that the Shanghai government considered public health and confidence more important than economic growth.

The central government announced last night that starting tomorrow, every province and city, even those without Sars cases, will have to submit daily reports.

China's Sars toll has climbed by another 125 cases, including four deaths. The nationwide total is now 2,422 cases and 110 deaths.

All four new deaths were in Beijing, which now has 774 confirmed cases with 39 deaths and another 863 suspected cases.

Beijing residents had more bad news when the WHO on Wednesday warned travellers to stay away from the Chinese capital as well as Shanxi, the second worst-hit province after Guangdong.

The travel advisory will stay in place for at least three weeks - twice the maximum incubation period for Sars.

But the Chinese Foreign Ministry yesterday reacted calmly, saying it understood the 'measures taken by relevant countries and organisations concerning Sars'.

Beijing yesterday closed the People's Hospital, one of the city's largest with about 2,300 employees, at midnight because of Sars.

Authorities also sealed off jails, barring prison employees from leaving the premises from 8 am yesterday.

And the national library was shuttered, a day after the government ordered 1.7 million Beijing schoolchildren to stay home for two weeks.