SARS - an Essential Page

While China has now confirmed three cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Guangdong Province, the disease has taken a back seat to Bird Flu in the news for much of this week.

That doesn't mean it has disappeared completely.

Hong Kong has isolated a suspected SARS case and is waiting for confirmation, according the Agence France Press. The 33-year old man was admitted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Hong Kong late Monday (Jan. 19).

Last year SARS killed 299 people in Hong Kong.

Not all the news this week on SARS was bad. China's state media announced approval of the first anti-SARS vaccine for clinical testing.

SARS has changed the way many Hong Kong residents eat. Reuters ran a feature this week on how demand for snake meat has declined in the city recently. Scientists think the SARS virus spreads to human from the contaminated meat of wild game animals. The cat-like civet is the number one suspect, and the SARS virus was found at a restaurant in China where civets were previously served; one of the three confirmed cases of SARS in China worked at that particular restaurant. Authorities have stopped the sell of civets this week and order the destruction of all civets in captivity.

Fear of SARS is crosses international borders. The AFT ran a story this week on concern in Saudi Arabia that Muslim pilgrims on the Hajj could bring SARS with them. About half a million pilgrims have already arrived in Mecca for this year's Hajj.