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Zhengzhou: Heads in the sand about
SARS
By Miao Ye
HONG KONG -
How many people in China's Henan province are infected
with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)? As of
this Monday, local officials said there were only 11
cases. But local residents by and large do not believe
these statistics. Why? Because suspected SARS cases have
been streaming out of provincial capital Zhengzhou's
train station every day since April
19.
Zhengzhou's train station has become a source
of hidden danger. After the "T8 Incident" on April 19,
in which a passenger infected with SARS was discovered
on the T8 train from Beijing to Zhengzhou, the city of 6
million suddenly became a very tense place.
The
number of people donning facemasks in public increased
sharply. The city is permeated with the odor of the
disinfectants that have become ubiquitous. Bottles of
disinfectant that were selling for 2 yuan (about 25 US
cents) a few weeks back are now selling for 10 yuan,
sometimes more.
A Zhengzhou resident said,
"Previously, Zhengzhou was fine. But ever since that day
[April 19] the number of people on the street wearing
facemasks increased dramatically." Zhengzhou residents
suddenly feel that SARS is walking alongside them
wherever they go.
According to informed sources,
Zhengzhou's SARS picture is not as rosy as official
announcements have indicated. The Fifth Hospital of
Zhengzhou has already had a SARS-related death. In No 2
Affiliated Hospital of Henan Medical University there
have been four deaths suspected of being caused by SARS.
Despite the local government announcing that up
until Monday there had been no SARS infections in
Zhengzhou, the majority of Zhengzhou residents are
viewing this information as spurious at best. Rumors of
all kinds are spreading like a virus throughout the
city. One of the prominent rumors is that hospitals -
the Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou
Railway Central Hospital and the Fifth Hospital of
Zhengzhou - had already admitted SARS
patients.
One Zhengzhou resident thought it was
obvious that Zhengzhou had a SARS problem, saying:
"Zhengzhou, in the central of inland China, is at the
juncture of the two major trunk railways of
Beijing-Guangzhou and Longhai. Trains running between
the two hard-hit areas of Beijing and Guangzhou all stop
at Zhengzhou. No SARS in Zhengzhou? Think about it and
you will know."
Outside of Henan province's
hospitals that have been officially designated for
treating SARS cases, the tension is palpable.
Public-security vehicles are frequently stationed
nearby, with their lone occupants still insisting upon
wearing their facemasks despite nobody else being in the
car with them.
According to people working in
Zhengzhou's train station, ever since the "T8 incident",
suspected cases have arrived daily. A Zhengzhou cab
driver said, "It's too dangerous now around the train
station. On the afternoon of the 22nd, two suspected
cases were taken from the train station. Nowadays no
drivers are willing to pick up passengers near the train
station."
Daily trains to SARS-affected areas in
China include 44 trains to Beijing, 10 to Guangzhou and
five to Taiyuan in Shanxi province. The number of
passengers at the train station has dropped off
considerably due to SARS - one taxi driver could take
the total number of people stopping off in Zhengzhou
each day. At the train station, there is no sanitizing
or disinfecting occurring, other than the cleaning that
is done on any normal day. The city has not taken any
effective measures to counter the threat posed by SARS.
Zhengzhou's train station is truly a snake in the grass.
Affected by SARS, many of Zhengzhou's wholesale
markets have experienced a major decline in business and
are saturated with a dark bleakness. A vendor of beauty
products said, "Because of this period of SARS, our
sales are falling significantly short of what we need to
take in. Every beauty product market has been hit hard."
All of Zhengzhou's primary and secondary schools
have begun to deny entry to people from elsewhere in
China. The municipal government has opened outpatient
fever clinics at six city hospitals. Every large market
or hotel is placing banners or signs near entrances and
exits that say "disinfected".
Last Thursday, an
inspection team of the State Council, China's cabinet,
visited Zhengzhou and began advising about anti-SARS
precautions. Just after the group arrived, a series of
measures were announced, all of which were effective
immediately, among them including screening of all
Zhengzhou residents who work outside of the city, the
numerous people from outside of the city who go to
Zhengzhou for work, and Zhengzhou residents who have
been to SARS-affected areas.
On Friday, an
infra-red heat scanner was installed at the entrance of
Zhengzhou's train station to check for passengers whose
body temperature exceeded normal. Was the municipal
government taking these measures in order to placate the
inspection team? No one knows. At any rate, these
gestures by the Zhengzhou government are tantamount to
locking the door after the horse has bolted.
As
of Monday, there were still only 11 official cases of
SARS in Henan province. At present, with the hot season
looming, many laborers working out of town will start to
flow back to their home villages. Henan has 11.8 million
laborers who work away from home. Their travels back and
forth between villages and cities such as Zhengzhou is
likely to contribute significantly to the spread of SARS
throughout the province.
The Zhengzhou train
station is a crucial transportation hub in Henan as well
as China. If the present anti-SARS measures are not
improved, it is very likely that there will be no way to
prevent a massive spread of SARS. Moreover, the majority
of passengers are from the countryside. Given the
condition of rural Henan's health-care system, if one
day SARS is spread to rural Henan, it will result in a
catastrophe that will be impossible to reverse.
Translated by Christopher Horton.
(©2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights
reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication policies.)
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