| |
Deception, by the
numbers
By Asia Times Online Staff
HONG KONG - China has been slowly winning its
battle against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
Or has it? Its statistics indicate a steady decrease,
now down to a trickle, in new and suspected cases.
However, a doctor from the interior of China who asked
his name to be withheld recently told Asia Times Online,
"Starting at the middle of May, the SARS statistics
issued by China should not be believed."
Since
the shock of April 20's official firings and confession
of cover-up, China's health ministry has released daily
statistical updates of new diagnosed cases of SARS and
suspected cases. But what the world doesn't know is that
within the government there is another set of statistics
known as "observed cases".
"It can be understood
this way: Since May 11, domestic observed cases are
actually what the outside world has been told are
'suspected' cases, whereas domestic suspected cases are
actually presented to the outside world as diagnosed
cases. Hence, when referring to domestic confirmed
cases, the definition a while back was for those who had
transmitted SARS to others. Now, it's a new policy of
'avoid it if you can'." What this means is that a gray
area has been created which allows for SARS cases,
confirmed or suspected, to fall through the statistical
cracks.
One patient's story
The
experience of Tang Mei, a young man with a high fever
from Xiangxiang city in rural Hunan as he went through
the SARS examination process, offers a revealing look at
the real situation.
After Tang returned to his
village in Hunan from neighboring Guangdong province at
the end of April, he experienced a fever of 39.4C
(102.9F). On May 5 he was received by the hospital in
Jinshi town for treatment. Workers at Xiangxiang's
emergency center did not dare avoid dealing with the
young man's case, so they proceeded promptly to Jinshi
hospital. They discovered that he was exhibiting
accompanying symptoms of headache, teary eyes and lack
of strength. He had a light cough and diarrhea. They did
not want to diagnose him in Jinshi, so they immediately
implemented quarantine measures and took him back to
Xiangxiang.
The next day at noon, the Xiangxiang
People's Hospital conducted a second chest examination
on the man. They discovered that his left lung was
exhibiting localized problematic symptoms and his
white-blood-cell count had dropped noticeably. A group
of hospital specialists immediately reported the
situation to the Xiangxiang municipal government,
whereupon the Xiangxiang municipal government reported
to the municipal disease control center of nearby
Xiangtan.
On May 7 around 10am, a team of
Xiangtan epidemiologists were dispatched to Xiangxiang,
where they examined the man three times. They discovered
that his right lung had developed new localized symptoms
and, after checking his blood, discovered that his white
blood cell count had dropped even further. Tang Mei was
a possible SARS case.
From when a seriously ill
Tang entered the hospital on May 5 to when he, healthy
once more, checked out of the hospital, Hunan officials
did not announce a single suspected case from May 3 on,
despite the constant insistence by Tang's hospital that
he was indeed a suspected case. Tang's case had been
thoroughly examined, but in the end hospital officials
determined that Tang had viral pneumonia or some sort of
bronchial pneumonia, or maybe he had SARS.
From
the beginning to the end, the hospital never made it
clear whether Tang was carrying the SARS virus, and he
was never considered a confirmed or suspected SARS case.
Hunan was not the pioneer of this SARS examination style
- Shanghai had long had its own version. When World
Health Organization (WHO) experts touched down in
Shanghai at the end of April to inspect the city, they
expressed interest in Shanghai's definitions of
diagnosed and suspected cases, but did not elaborate
further.
A South China Weekly reporter learned
through internal channels that at the end of April in
Shanghai, there were 38 confirmed cases in isolation,
which exceeded official statistics. When the magazine
was published, it deleted the true picture of SARS in
Shanghai, which the reporter had worked so arduously to
obtain. After a while, the State Council, China's
cabinet, expressed concern that SARS had penetrated the
country's vast countryside. However, suspect regions in
the countryside were issuing few reports. The words of
the chief of Jingyuan county in Ningxia Hui Autonomous
Region are worth pondering.
Desperation
The county chief, who had
served in the army for more than 20 years, stated: "We
are a very poor county with only 100,000 people and 3
million [yuan, about US$362,400] in the county finance
bureau. Add on that we don't even have 10 doctors in the
entire county. We have a law for anyone coming here from
outside that they be quarantined and observed. If one
day they develop SARS, we enclose the person in
quarantine and let the situation run its course,
afterward we torch the quarantine building."
He
added: "Think about it, based on our current
circumstances, this is the most responsible way of
dealing with things."
(Copyright 2003 Asia Times
Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication policies.)
|
| |
|
|
 |
|
