Globetrotting Traveler Infected With SARS

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Globetrotting Traveler Infected With SARS

April 10, 2003
By KEITH BRADSHER 




 

HONG KONG, April 10 - In a striking example of how far and
fast a virus can be carried in an era of international jet
travel, health officials announced here tonight that a man
infected with a newly discovered respiratory disease had
flown from Hong Kong to Munich, Barcelona, Frankfurt,
London, Munich again, Frankfurt again and then back to Hong
Kong before entering a hospital.

The Hong Kong Department of Health appealed tonight for
passengers and air crews from all seven flights to contact
medical professionals. A health department spokeswoman said
that it was not yet known whether the man, 48, had infected
anyone else on the flights with SARS, or severe acute
respiratory syndrome.

All of the flights were on Lufthansa. The airline said in a
statement tonight that it had disinfected all of the
airplanes and was contacting the air crews and passengers,
and it contended that the likelihood of anyone becoming
infected during the flights was ``very remote.''

Airlines have been saying that the filters aboard modern
planes do a good job of removing viruses from the air. But
according to the health department here, at least 13 people
have fallen sick with SARS after they shared a flight from
Hong Kong to Beijing last month with an elderly man who had
become infected with the disease while visiting his brother
in a hospital here.

Tonight's appeal for the Lufthansa air crews and passengers
to come forward follows nearly a dozen such appeals by
health officials and airlines operating flights in and out
of Hong Kong. Travelers have continued to board planes
while feeling ill despite strenuous warnings from the World
Health Organization and national health agencies that they
not do so. 

In the case announced tonight, the man flew on Lufthansa
flight 731 on March 30 from Hong Kong to Munich, and
traveled on the following day on flight 4316 to Barcelona,
according to an itinerary released here by the health
department. The man then developed symptoms while in
Barcelona. 

The man then traveled on flight 4303 to Frankfurt on April
2 and on to London the same day on flight 4520. He went to
Munich the next day on flight 4671, then headed for
Frankfurt on April 4 on flight 265. He connected with
flight 738 the same day back to Hong Kong, arriving on
April 5. 

The man checked into a hospital here on April 8 and was
confirmed today to have SARS.

Doctors do not yet know how infectious, if at all, people
are in the early stages of SARS. But Dr. Yeoh Eng-kiong,
Hong Kong's secretary for health, welfare and food, warned
tonight that doctors here had become infected from people
who had not yet shown the full symptoms identified by the
World Health Organization.

Dr. Yeoh suggested that even someone with diarrhea alone
could be infectious.

The sick man's nationality was uncertain tonight. The
health department statement did not identify it at all,
while the airline's statement described the man as Chinese.


An airline official said that the company had been told by
the health department here only that the man was Chinese.
The health department spokeswoman said that the man seemed
to be of Chinese descent but that the agency had been
unable to determine the man's nationality.

``He travels a lot,'' the spokeswoman said. ``We don't know
his passport.'' 

Hong Kong still issues separate passports from mainland
China, a legacy of its days as a former British colony.
Officials here sometimes refer to people as Chinese if they
are from Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade
province, or if they are people of any nationality who
happen to be of Chinese descent.

The infected man's odyssey could not come at a worse time
for Hong Kong, as countries have begun limiting the entry
of people traveling from here or imposing quarantines on
them. 

Malaysia stopped issuing visas today to practically all
holders of Hong Kong and mainland China passports. Cathay
Pacific Airways, Hong Kong's main airline, announced
tonight that it had suspended all flights to Kuala Lumpur
because there were very few passengers left.

Regina Ip, Hong Kong's secretary of security, met with
Malaysia's consul general here today to protest the
decision. ``There is no reason why the mobility of Hong
Kong residents who do not have any close contact with
infected persons should be restricted,'' she said
afterward. 

Today, Singapore also imposed a 10-day quarantine on all
foreign workers earning less than $24,000 a year who have
recently been in a SARS-affected country or territory.
Employers must pay all costs of the quarantine. Singapore
has been trying for years to lure high-income expatriates
in financial services and other lucrative industries, while
making it harder for lower-income workers to immigrate and
do jobs that less-educated Singaporeans might otherwise do.


Hong Kong's economy depends heavily on its role as Asia's
transportation hub, the place from which businesses can
control and coordinate factories and other businesses
spread across the continent. Hong Kong has the world's
busiest container port for sea freight, the world's busiest
airport for international air cargo shipments and what was,
until recently, Asia's busiest airport in terms of
international air passenger departures.

But the availability of flights here is withering as many
governments have warned their citizens not to visit and
many businesses have ordered their employees not to travel
here. 

Cathay Pacific has canceled a quarter of its daily flights
here. Dragonair, an affiliated carrier that dominates the
business of flying people from Hong Kong to cities in
mainland China, has stopped operating almost half its
flights. Continental Airlines canceled its daily, nonstop
flight from Hong Kong to New York earlier this week for
lack of passengers.

The Airport Authority here said that a third of all flights
originally scheduled to operate today had been canceled for
various reasons. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/10/science/sciencespecial/10CND-SARS.html?ex=
1051019377&ei=1&en=5ef975ec412fb40d



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