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To defeat the enemy, we must know the enemy |
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Information appearing here is gathered froom a variety of third-party sources and these parties hold the necessary copyright to the information. This site merely collates information for
the purpose of educating the public on SARS. |
The information presented here has been collated from a number of different reliable sources. It is by no way a comprehensive listing of events, but it gives some idea of the development and spread of the SARS Virus. Nov 16 2002 - Foshan, in southern China's hard-hit Guangdong province on the Pearl River Delta. The first case of SARS involved a man, a "super-infector" who subsequently infected four others, but strangely not his four adult children who lived with him. Nov 31 2002 - Deadly outbreak of pneumonia carries on in China, probably linked to SARS (WHO). Disease has killed at least 34 people in China in the south and three in Beijing. Hundreds have been infected. Dec 15 2002 - Disease "hitchhikes" 200 kilometers to Heyuan city, the provincial capital of Guangzhou. 2 patients, who checked into Heyuan Municipal Hospital, were unresponsive to antibiotics. Virus spread to 5 hospital workers. Panic ensued in Heyuan and the local authorities tried to calm the people with news that there was not epidemic. Within days, the alarm subsided. Somewhere between this time, provincial party leaders stemmed the media from publishing details of the disease, hindering further efforts to contain the virus. End Dec 2002 - Guangdong had reported at least 300 cases. Jan 2003 - A shrimp salesman, 37 year old Su Quoqiang, carries the disease to Guangzhou from Heyuan. In the city of Zhongshan, where he stopped to buy shellfish and shrimp, 20 people were already infected with SARS and 12 were housed in the Zhongshan Traditional Hospital. Su Guoqiang returns from his trip with a fever, but thought nothing of it, nor did he see a doctor. Within 3 days, he was transfered to Zhongsan No. 2 hospital in Guangzhou. It spreads through three hospitals in the city, including the Sun Yatsen Memorial Hospital where Dr Liu Jianlun, 64, a specialist in respiratory diseases, helped to treat the victims. 8 days later, Su Guoqiang died, but not before passing the virus on to his brother, Su Qingshan, who has since recovered. 28 Jan 2003 - Government officials, panicking at the outbreak, begin to send out a bulletin to doctors in Guangzhou. WHO commends this action as "appropriately timed". 1 Feb 2003 - Chinese Lunar New Year Day: A farmer, Mr Deng, from Southern Guangdong, was racked by a paroxysm of violent coughing and he spluttered and gasped for air. His wife managed to get him to the Heyuan People's Hospital in Guangzhou. Later, Mr Deng was transferred to the Guangzhou Army's General Hospital. Met 64 year old Dr Liu who cared for him and the rest of the patients with similar symptoms. Mr Deng overhears a conversation that Dr Liu would be in Hongkong for a wedding reception on Feb 21. He would be staying at the Metropole Hotel on Waterloo Road in Mongkok, on the ninth floor. At the respiratory department of No. 3 hospital in Zhongsan, Dr Cao Hong, the department chief, and a nurse were treating a seafood dealer who had been admitted. This seafood dealer turns out to be the first super-spreader of the SARS virus. Dubbed the "Poison King" in China, he infected as many as 90 people before he recovered, including Dr Cao and the nurse. "When we moved the tube down his throat, he stated to cough," Dr Cao says. "His mucus flew all over the place and on our shirts." Dr Cao and the nurse had been wearing masks. "Poison King" has been rumoured to also have given the virus to Dr Liu. 11 Feb 2003 - Guangdong's new party chief, Zhang Dejiang holds a conference with health officials for the first time. Officials proclaim the virus is under control. Leader of the provincial health bureau, Huang Qingdao, announced 305 cases and 5 deaths. 12 Feb 2003 - Guangzhou's major newspaper, the Xin Kuai Daily, ran an extensive interview with Professor Cai Lihui, who criticized the China government's slow reaction in dealing with the outbreak. 15 Feb 2003 - Dr Liu fell ill in southern China, probably catching the virus from a patient in the province where five people last month died and more than 300 others were sick with a fast-spreading pneumonia. 20 Feb 2003 - Dr Liu discharged Mr Deng and several other patients; he himself had been feeling unwell for five days.
He had fever and dry cough.That
evening, he had a raging fever, but struggled nevertheless to
get ready for dinner. At the wedding dinner, though feeling rather unwell, the professor and his wife had a joyous reunion-of-sorts with his brother-in-law and sister. A few days later his sister and her husband were also stricken. The good news was that his wife and sister recovered quickly and were discharged. The hotel guests he spread the virus to, meanwhile, unwittingly carried the disease a new form of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) or atypical pneumonia across Asia and to North America and Europe, including Germany. Another person believed to have been on the ninth floor of the Metropole when the sickly doctor sneezed on February 21 was a Hong Kong airport worker, who happened to be in the hotel to visit a friend. The 26-year-old went on to become the index or original patient in the Prince of Wales Hospital which has been at the epicentre of the Asian outbreak. 22 Feb 2003 - Dr Liu was admitted to Kwong Wah Hospital on February 22, a day after his arrival in Hong Kong, and died days later on 4 March 2003, of an aggressive strain of pneumonia that experts worldwide are still struggling to identify. 23 Feb 2003 - The 49-year-old Chinese American, Mr Johnny Chen, flew from Shanghai to Hanoi, via Hongkong, on a routine business trip. He is a garment merchandise manager who lived in Shanghai. 24 Feb 2003 - Chinese American Mr Johnny Chen fell sick after a night out on the town on Feb 24. Doctors at the Hanoi French Hospital failed to make the connection. Still, his condition baffled them so they notified the World Health Organisation (WHO). 25 Feb 2003 - Three of the other guests on the same floor were young Singaporean women, all of whom were infected with the virus. They were hospitalised in Singapore after leaving the Metropole on February 25 and are recovering, but not before passing the infection on to more than a dozen other medical staff and relatives. However, many others in Singapore became infected, including a doctor who treated them. The Singaporean doctor flew with his family to a medical conference in New York but on the way home, had to be taken off a flight in Germany, together with his 13-week pregnant wife and his elderly mother. They were all quarantined. The aircraft and its passengers had to be quarantined. He recovered but is believed to have passed the virus on to more than 100 doctors, health workers and relatives who in turn have helped spread the virus to cities including Beijing, Paris, Manchester and Tokyo. 26 Feb 2003 - China's government reimposes the earlier media ban, possibly due to Xin Kuai Daily's interview of the professor and his criticism. This ban stays in place until March. the "Poison King" (see 1 Feb 2003) by this time had passed through 3 hospitals and infected up to 90 workers. The hospitals are Zhongsan's No. 2 and No. 3 and the Guangzhou No. 8 People's hospital. Dr Liu Jianlun, who brought the disease to Hong Kong when he attended a wedding ceremony, worked occassionally in Zhongshan No.2 Hospital. 28 Feb 2003 - The Zhujiang Hospital finally receives a memo from Beijing, in which the virus is identified wrongly as mycoplasma pneumonia. Although the doctors at the hospital had already, through vigirous tests, ruled out this virus as the cause, they kept silent. 4 March 2003 - A week later, Chinese American Mr Johnny Chen was flown to Hongkong by private jet at his family's request. Meanwhile, a worker employed by the Hanoi contractor who had taken Mr Chen shopping came down with a similar illness. A nurse and a doctor who had treated Mr Chen in Hanoi later died, while three of the 31 other hospital staff who also came down with symptoms remain in serious condition. 5 March 2003 - The 78-year-old Canadian woman, Kwan Sui-chu, who was one of the two people standing outside the lift with the elderly Dr Liu, dies in hospital in Toronto. 12 March 2003 - The World Health Organization issues a global SARS alert. 13 March 2003 - Mr Chen perished in Hongkong where 145 cases were already on the books. The 78 year old Canadian woman's son, Tse Chi Kwai, 44, dies at Scarborough Grace in Toronto. 15 March 2003 - A 72-year-old Beijing man, believed to have been the 'super-spreader' boarded flight CA112, an Air China flight from Hongkong to Beijing. He infected nine Hongkong tourists, three Taiwanese businessmen, one Singaporean woman, two Chinese government officials and two stewardesses. The two stewardesses on the March 15 flight who also came down with Sars returned separately to their native Inner Mongolia, where they became the source of transmission to over 280 Sars patients in the northern region. 16 March 2003 - WHO put out a rare travel advisory calling Sars a global threat. More than 215 cases outside China had already been reported. the 72 year old Beijing man infected a group of Beijing medical workers as he was transferred to three hospitals. 18 March 2003 - Two Chinese officials on March
15 flight flew on to Bangkok for a March 18 meeting, and at least
one of them fell ill with Sars by March 20. That official then
returned to Beijing three days later and infected Mr Pekka Aro,
a 53-year-old Finnish official of the International Labour Organisation
who died on April 5 - becoming China's first foreign Sars fatality.
20 March 2003 - 72 year old Beijing man dies from SARS. 21 March 2003 - A 76-year-old Canadian man who shared a hospital room with Mr. Tse dies of SARS at Scarborough Grace Hospital. 25 March 2003 - Scarborough Grace Hospital in Toronto officially closed its doors to new patients and most visitors. on the same day, provincial health officials announced the quarantine of the health workers' families. 27 March 2003 - The World Health Organization asks airlines to screen passengers for SARS on flights leaving affected areas, where hospitals are restricting visitors and admissions.
31 March 2003 - An entire block of apartments in Amoy Gardens Estate (photo on left, copyright Times.com) is quarantined by Hong Kong Health Authorities after SARS cases there reach above 200. A fourth victim of SARS dies in Singapore. 1 April 2003 - British tourist becomes first
SARS case detected in Australia. In Toronto, Canada, SARS spreads
to children at the Sick Kids Hospital. Malaysia reports its first
suspected SARS death. Second victim perishes in Thailand hospital. 3 April 2003 - The SARS virus is about to make another deadly journey. This time from Toronto to Manila through nursing aide Adela Catalon. This is the day before she left for the Philippines to take care of her sick father. At a going away party her friends held for her, one of the guests is the mother of her Canadian roomate known as DC. DC's mother was a SARS patient in critical condition in a Toronto hospital. DC herself had fever when she attended Adela's going away party. 4 April 2003 - 6th and youngest victim in Singapore, 29 year old Chong Peiling, succumbs to SARS after returning sick from Beijing on 26 March 2003. 6 more cases of SARS detected in Malaysia. Hong Kong reports 27 new SARS cases. 5 April 2003 - US government takes authority to quarantine people suspected of carrying a new disease after a recent incident in which a woman arriving from China refused treatment. Chinese experts in hard-hit Guangdong province told the scientists they have found a rare form of airborne chlamydia in some of their SARS patients. Mr Pekka Aro, a 53-year-old Finnish official of the International Labour Organisation died on April 5 and is China's first foreign Sars fatality. 6 April 2003 - Canada reports 8th death from SARS. Philippines nursing aide Adela Catalon (see 3 April 2003) has a high fever, but still travel around Manila looking for a clinic to treat her father's tumour. 7 April 2003 - Singapore suffers 2 more deaths from SARS. One is a doctor and the other is the mother of Esther Mok, an ex-flight stewardess who, as a "super-infector", had infected 91 others upon her return from a trip to Hong Kong. China's death toll from SARS stands at 53. 8 April 2003 - India reports first suspected case of SARS. Canada reports 9th victim to die from SARS. 9 April 2003 - Another housing block in Hong Kong's Ngau Tau Kok district is affected by SARS. Five hospitals in Singapore have been affected by SARS.
11 April 2003 - SARS spreads to Inner Mongolia in China. Canadian officials report 13 new SARS cases. 12 April 2003 - Nursing aide Adela Catalon is admitted to the San Lazaro Hospital (SLH) in Manila by her relatives as he condition worsens. 13 April 2003 - A Canadian lab, The Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, part of the B.C. Cancer Agency has become the first to sequence the coronavirus believed to be responsible for SARS. Singapore tags home quarantine order flouts with electronic wrist bands.Fugitive Chinese woman who showed symptoms of SARS and walked out of the Singapore Comminicable Disease Center still missing. 14 April 2003 - Hamburg's The Bernhard-Nocht Institute (BNI) announces that it has developed and evaluated different RT-PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests for the SARS-associated coronavirus. More news on the test will be released today. SARS kills 7 more people in Hong Kong, bring the death toll there to 47. Nursing aide Adela Catalon dies in the Philippines from SARS. 15 April 2003 - SARS death toll worldwide soars to 150. 16 April 2003 - 3 babies born prematurely to SARS patients are feared to have SARS as they displayed symptoms of high fever and difficulty in breathing. 17 April 2003 - Hong Kong scientists detect a deadlier form of SARS that seems to attack the very young as well as the very old. A 16 month od toddler dies in Singapore of suspected SARS. The toddler has had a history of asthma. Authorities are trying to determine if SARS is to blame. 18 April 2003 - A record of 12 deaths is reported in Hong Kong. China reports 48 new SARS cases. Scientist identify a previously unknown form of Coronovirus as the most probable cause of SARS. 19 April 2003 - A British man, suspected to be Indonesia's only SARS case to date, goes missing. The 47-year old textile manager was told to stay home for two weeks after being discharged from the Sulianti Saroso Infectious Diseases Hospital in north Jakarta on 18 April. 20 April 2003 - Sunnybrook Hospital, a major trauma center in Toronto, has closed its trauma unit and redirected ambulances after reporting a new cluster of about 12 possible cases of SARS. China has fired two top Communist Party officials following widespread criticism of the government's response to the SARS public health crisis. Sunday saw the dismissal of Health Minister Zhang Wenkang and Beijing mayor Meng Xuekong from key party posts. China announces 12 more SARS deaths and 300 new cases, cancels May Day holidays. 21 April 2003 - China reports 194 more cases of people infected with SARS and 13 deaths. 22 April 2003 - 17 more SARS deaths in Asia (11 from China), bringing the worldwide toll up to 235. UK is now classified as a SARS area [read more]. In India, 25 guests at a wedding were quarantined when it was discovered that the bride, her brother and her mother tested positive for SARS [read more]. The Beijing Genomics Institute reports that the SARS virus is mutating rapidly [read more]. 23 April 2003 - WHO increases its travel warning, urging people to avoid unnecessary trips to China's Shanxi Province, Beijing and Toronto, Ontario. This is after genetic variations of the SARS virus is reported. Beijing closes all its schools until May 7th at least after posting a sharp increase in the numer of SARS cases - 693 confirmed cases to date. SARS madness strikes Beijing as thousands of people jam its railway stations to get out of the country, in a bid to avoid SARS. 24 April 2003 - WHO issued travel warnings to parts of China and Toronto, Canada. The Toronto mayor issues an angry rebuttal against WHO, questioning why Toronto was targetted. 25 April 2003 - Analysis of the latest statistics on the global SARS epidemic reveals that at least 10 per cent of people who contract the new virus will die of the disease. The figure till today's revelation was much lower at about 5% to 6%. Worldwide, the SARS toll has risen to a total of 274 deaths and over 4800 infections. 4000 people in Beijing today itself are quarantined and 2 hospitals are isolated. The Philippines reports its first two deaths related to SARS. On a related topic, an email virus exploiting the populations' fear of SARS, hits town. W32.Coronex@mm is a mass-mailing worm that uses its own SMTP engine to send itself to all the contacts in the Windows Address Book.The email has various subjects, messages, and attachments. The attachment will have a .exe file extension. Operating systems not affected are: Macintosh, OS/2, UNIX, Linux. 26 April 2003 - Asian health ministers met in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to discuss actions against SARS in the region. They agreed on Saturday on measures to slow the spread of Sars, including more screening at international departure points, a bar on travellers showing symptoms of the virus and a requirement for health declaration forms for visitors from affected countries. 27 April 2003 - Taiwan confirms its first death from SARS, a 56 year old man who had been hospitalized since April 3. The victim was believed to have contracted the disease from his brother, a resident reportedly from Hong Kong's Amoy Garden public housing estate, where hundreds of people were infected with the deadly virus. India's sixth SARS case surfaces in crowded Calcutta. 28 April 2003 - While SARS continues to ravage the world, economists have estimated the cost of the war against the virus to be in the region of US$30 bn. Air India faces problems as pilots strike over SARS. 37 flights are grounded and 15 pilots are suspended. China reported 203 new cases and 8 deaths as WHO declared Vietnam the only country to successfully contain the virus. Hong Kong hospitals embark on a lottery system for junior doctors to decide who should work in SARS wards. Senior doctors have been exclluded from the draw. 29 April 2003 - China reports 9 new deaths from SARS, bringing the total fatalities to 147. 202 new cases have also been reported. Possible first cases have been found in three new countries - Mongolia, South Korea and New Zealand. The World Health Organisation said Sars had peaked in all infected countries, except China. Researchers find that SARS has less of an effect on children that it does older people. India reports its 7th SARS case. In Calcutta, patients fled a hospital after a 42-year-old textile engineer who tested positive for the flu-like disease was placed in the hospital's isolation unit. 30 April 2003 - To this date, Beijing has quarantined more than 10,000 people because of the SARS scare. India sees its SARS cases double to 19 as nine staff members of a hospital that treated an infected family came down with the flu-like disease and another man tested positive after visiting Singapore. GlaxoSmithKline said that it was collaborating with other companies and France's Institut Pasteur to accelerate development of a possible vaccine against SARS.The global death toll from rose to 373, with at least 5,400 cases reported in more than 20 countries. 1 May 2003 - Hong Kong reports 5 deaths and 11 new cases as of today while in China, 187 new cases are reported with 11 deaths. Total infections top 5600 worldwide. Two nearly identical sequences of the SARS virus genetic structure have been reviewed and authenticated by experts. Teach fairs and trade shows in Taiwan and Singapore are cancelled for fear of SARS. 2 May 2003 - WHO removes US, Britain from SARS-Affected list. Meanwhile, China reports 11 new SARS deaths. in Hong Kong, doctors find that the virus is mutating as new cases are reported. They have also found that the virus can live on in recovered patients for up to a month. World events, from computer shows to cycling competitions, have to be postponed because of the presence of the virus. SARS death toll reaches 391 worldwide. 4 May 2003 - SARS cases top 6,000 globally; death toll at 436. 9 deaths were reported in mainland China and Hong Kong. Ten sailors working on a Malaysian freighter have been hospitalized in Hong Kong after reporting SARS symptoms. Beijing Extends School Shutdown Due to SARS by another 2 weeks. 8 May 2003 - Global SARS toll zooms past 500. China has punished more than 120 officials in the past month for covering up the extent of the SARS outbreak. India is back in the list of SARS reporting countries. Unlike the previous figures, SARS death rate soars to high of 15%. In Russia, a top health official has been quoted as saying that Russia has its first known case of SARS. 9 May 2003 - In Singapore, Chua Hock Seng, 50, who violated a home quarantine order, was given the maximum penalty of six months in jail. In China's Tianjin province, a man who spat on the ground at a bus stop was lynched by a mob due to the fear of SARS spreading as a result of his actions. 10 May 2003 - China said on Sunday five more people had died from SARS and another 69 were infected, taking the death toll to 240 and the number of cases to 4,948. In Hong Kong, 3 more people have died and four new cases have been recorded bringing Hong Kong's death toll to 215. In Singapore, a 44-year-old female nurse died Sunday of the SARS virus, bringing the death toll to 28. World-renowned researcher Doctor David Ho says the SARS virus apparently attacks people's cells in a similar manner to the AIDS virus and that may offer clues for finding the best drugs to treat the newly discovered disease. 12 May 2003 - SARS global death toll tops 550. Greece reports first suspected case of SARS. In Hong Kong, director Steve Cheng obviously believes that laughter is the best medicine for citizens of the SARS-ravaged territory. He will be filming a comedy called City of SARS according to a website of the British movie magazine Empire. 15 May 2003 - WHO takes Toronto off SARS warning list. China says that it may execute SARS quarantine breakers. 18 May 2003 - Singapore, on it's 19th day with just one more day to go before being declared SARS-free buy WHO, reports one new SARS case. A 39 year old permanent resident, Mr Lee Chong Kian, originally from Malaysia is the latest person to be infected with the virus. He had made several visits to Johor Bahru before he was diagnosed as a probable Sars case. No doubt, people in Singapore will be very disappointed at this development. 30 May 2003 - Singapore is declared SARS free by WHO. More Information: Source: |
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21
Feb 2003 - Dr Liu,
visiting Hong Kong from Guangzhou, southern China, to attend
a wedding reception, was clearly unwell as he coughed and sneezed
next to other guests while waiting for the lift on the ninth
floor of Hong Kong's Metropole Hotel (photo on right, copyright
AP) on February 21.
29
March 2003 - Dr
Carlos Urbani, discoverer of the SARS virus, dies in Hanoi, Vietnam.
10
April 2003 - As
the rate of SARS infections in Hong Kong increases (see graphic,
right, from 
