Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - WHO advises postponing travel to HKG, Guangdong

http://www.who.int/csr/sarsarchive/2003_04_02/en/

Excerpts:

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">The SARS situation in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has developed features of concern: a continuing and significant increase in cases with indications that SARS has spread beyond the initial focus in hospitals. These developments have suggested environmental routes of transmission from a SARS infected person which may be related to contamination of common systems that link rooms or flats together. Despite the implementation of strict measures to control the outbreak, there have continued to be a small number of visitors to Hong Kong who have been identified as SARS cases after their return from Hong Kong. The epidemic in Guangdong Province of China, situated adjacent to Hong Kong, is the largest outbreak of SARS reported and has also shown evidence of spread in the wider community. As a measure of precaution WHO is now recommending that persons travelling to Hong Kong and Guangdong Province of China consider postponing non-essential travel. This temporary recommendation will be reassessed in the light of the evolution of the epidemic in the areas currently indicated, and other areas of the world could become subject to similar recommendations if the situation demands.</font>

We live in a funny world and for Hongkies (I have every right to call you Hong Kong people "Honkies" for what you have created for the media)they certainly live in a panic planet. God help them. They are creating the panic for themselves and then the media muddles along with them and guess what happens - everyone avoid the place. So, my advice to Honkies are STOP PANICKING and WORK ON THE SOLUTION! GET IT! Read the following and digest the info.

AND NOW THE GOOD NEWS

By Nury Vittachi


There is a dangerous virus spreading through Hong Kong.

It is NOT atypical pneumonia.

It is panic.

All outbreaks of any high-profile pathogen or disease (cf the UK's Mad Cow disease) have two major effects. A tiny proportion of people are hit by the disease itself. A large number of people, organizations and entire industry sectors are hit by the panic that accompanies it.

Yes, you should be careful and take all precautions as advised by your medical advisor, but no, you don't have to panic and flee Hong Kong.

1. You don't have to stay at home. At the time of writing (first
week of April, 2003), more than 99.999% of people in Hong Kong are completely free of the SARS virus.

2. An increase in numbers doesn't mean people in every apartment
block have it. The virus's growth pattern shows a tendency to remain tightly clustered - for example in the Prince of Wales Hospital and Amoy Gardens.

3. Ninety-nine people a day die of flu every day in the United States alone. Of these 99, about 30 die of acute respiratory problems. In Hong Kong, 16 people have died over a month.

4. In any large city of this size, there are hundreds of pneumonia sufferers at any time, of which several dozen have some form of atypical pneumonia.

5. Yes, the virus does mutate. But this doesn't necessarily mean it continually gets more virulent. Scientists note that as SARS spreads, it is significantly weakening from carrier to carrier.

6. The media may call it a killer virus, but the survival rate among those hit in these clusters is 96%.

7. Yes, we all care about our children, but very few kids get it - careful examination of lists confirms that victims tend to be elderly people with a direct physical link to the clusters.

8. Contaminated places get clean by themselves. The virus dies without a carrier. Some scientists estimate its life as three hours, others say a little longer, but all agree it cannot hibernate. In other words, you can even check into the Metropole Hotel floor 9 without fear.

9. The virus is believed to die when the air temperature reaches 27 degrees C. One hot Hong Kong day could fry all traces of it on exposed surfaces.

10. You can keep your air conditioner on in the office. Ward 8B in the Prince of Wales Hospital shares an air conditioning system with the infected Ward 8A. But there was not a single infection in 8B.

11. Many people assume the "growth model" of the virus will follow sci-fi movie scenarios. Evidence suggests it is more likely to follow the Guangzhou experience, where it spread for a few weeks and then started to contract.

12. The flood of panicky emails from a variety of people, including doctors who should know better, is not helpful. One email doing the rounds is instructing people not to exercise, for example. Panic creates muddle-headedness. Consider the facts above. Hong Kong is our home.
Stay calm and stay healthy!

I really hope HKG will soon contain this disease.

I checked weekend loads on CX from NRT to HKG for this month. I was just apalled to see so many seats left unsold. Even on April 26, which is the beginning of a string of holidays in Japan, there are some seats left! Normally, they should have been showing J0 C0 D0 I0 Y0 B0 .... by this time.

This even after paring one flight.

This will be another disaster for CX.

I agree - and I feel terrible that I am contributing. I was booked to transit through HKG next week on a business trip to LHR. My travelling companions have point blank refused to transit through HKG. No amount of pleading, presenting them with facts and emails from friends in HKG that it is completely overblown media beat up would make them change their minds. So yesterday was spent running around trying to change flights. I wanted to keep to our existing plans, but as it is a working trip, I got outvoted.

I'm flying.