No Fear of SARS in Guangzhou

April 6, 2003
By GREGORY J. RUMMO

GUANGZHOU -- Nearby the capital city of Guangdong Province--the Gateway to the South-it is believed that the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome responsible for world-wide panic began sometime last November.

Unreported for three months by the Ministry of Health, the disease began killing people and spreading to the rest of the world from this densely populated hub for business in southern China. 

And now, five months later, it has infected over 2200 people and resulted in almost 80 deaths in 18 countries.

When the members of the adoption group I was traveling with arrived here on April 4, the same evening as a team from the World Health Organization, we were apprehensive. From the news reports, which always featured seemingly endless video clips of travelers wearing surgical masks, and the worried e-mails and phone calls from friends and family back in the US, we were expecting to be greeted at the arrival gate by attendants in full decontamination suits.

Instead there was no evidence that we had just landed near Ground Zero for SARS in the People's Republic of China.

Walking off the bus that brought us from the Southern China 737 to the concourse, hardly anyone was wearing a surgical mask. It was only after we walked outside the main terminal, past hundreds of arriving and departing passengers, that I saw the first person wearing a mask but it dangled loosely around his neck, ineffective to ward off germs. 

We walked another five minutes to our bus and I counted a total of five more masked travelers-a family of three and two individuals. 

Earlier in the week we had been in Nanning, the provincial capital of Guangxi Province which borders Guangdong Province to its west. Some of us had developed mild throat tickles and were feeling slightly feverish. A few of the babies were sneezing and had runny noses. You try not to think of the worst but the mind plays tricks when it's constantly bombarded by a stream of ominous news from CNN and the BBC.

Over the weekend in Guangzhou we brought our new daughters to a clinic as part of the adoption procedure before appearing at the US Consulate the following Monday. All 17 babies were healthy although one did have a slight fever and mild congestion in her chest which was treated with antibiotics.

By now, those parents who had mild sore throats were starting to feel better.
Later that morning we went shopping on Shamian Island, a section of Guangzhou. I spoke with Ching Yan Ming, the 18-year old daughter of the owner of a store called "Chinatown" (yes, in Guangzhou there's a store named "Chinatown," believe it or not.) Ching told me she wasn't worried about SARS. "The air is pretty good here," she said although the ripe, sulfurous odor of what was unmistakably sewage permeating the air in the vicinity of the shops made me wonder if her logic wasn't somehow flawed.

A news crew from CCTV4 showed up and interviewed one family in our group. They asked if we felt nervous about being in Guangzhou. "We are staying away from crowds, using common sense and following the advice of our adoption guides," said Bill Campbell of Kankakee, Illinois. Linda, his wife added, "We're washing our hands often trying to stay as germ-free as possible. We might consider using a mask in the airport in Hong Kong when we change planes next week and head back to the US."

Guangzhou is just about to host its annual trade fair. In any other year, thousands of businessmen from all over the world would soon be streaming into the airport and the train station. Interviewing gweilos willing to go on television and tell the world they aren't afraid to be in China makes for good propaganda that the worst is over.

And maybe it is.

China Daily reported on April 3 "The falling number of cases of atypical pneumonia in China has proven that the epidemic is now under control." The headline noted that less that 4 percent of the mainland cases have been fatal; 934 patients have recovered.

Indeed, WHO advises the disease is less infectious than influenza, and the death rate has been relatively low; between three and four percent.

This hardly seems like anything approaching a pandemic. The Black Death that ravaged the world during the 1340s is thought to have originated in China also. It was responsible for over 23 million deaths worldwide.

The difference from then to now is thankfully we are fortunate to live in a time when medical technology can react quickly to stem outbreaks of infectious diseases.
The crime here was clearly one of denial. If instead of hiding the early cases of SARS, China had alerted world health authorities to the epidemic when it was first detected, the disease never would have spread to the extent it has.

And we probably wouldn't be sitting here in our room in the China Hotel in Guangzhou wondering if those little throat tickles were something more serous. n

Gregory J. Rummo is a syndicated columnist. Read all of his columns on his homepage, www.GregRummo.com. E-Mail Rummo at  [email protected]