X-Message-Number: 21528
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2003 04:22:22 -0500 (EST)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: SARS info sources

New England Journal of Medicine placed two very detailed summaries of case
information (including symptoms, attempted treatments, and X-ray photos)
as pdf files on its site on March 31. This is the URL from which you can
obtain free downloads:

http://nejm.org/earlyrelease/sars.asp

These are the only technically detailed case histories I have been able to
find.

World Health Organization dispatches have been minimally informative
(apart from their numeric tally of cases worldwide) but you can receive
their Weekly Epidemiological Record via email. Send a message to
 with the command

subscribe wer-reh

in the body of the message. So far the informational content has been
meager, but future dispatches may be more useful. Back issues are stored
at:

http://www.who.int/wer/

EMS-L is a discussion list for people in emergency medical services. Thus
far, not much original material about SARS, but if the virus spreads more
widely here, we can expect more informative posts. Anyone can subscribe to
this list from the web site:

http://listserv.unc.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=ems-l

Another emergency medicine discussion list is EMED-L, which you can
receive by sending a message to  with this
command:

subscribe emed-l [yourname]

...replacing [yourname] with your actual name. This is a relatively
high-volume list but it has a digest option. I don't know yet how
SARS-oriented it is.

Anyone outside of the medical field is a visitor who should use the
discussion lists with discretion, and do not bombard participants with
numerous questions.

Another interesting source, stating that about one-eighth of all Hong Kong
patients admitted to hospitals have been successfully discharged as of
April 1st:

http://www.info.gov.hk/dh/new/index.htm

Here's some text from this site. Since this is a government-run service,
it attempts to be reassuring.

---

Daily update 1 Apr 2003

The following is jointly issued by the Department of Health and the
Hospital Authority:

As at 1 PM 1 Apr 2003, 5 more patients are recovered. This brought to 84
the total number of patients who have recovered from atypical
pneumonia and have been discharged from public hospitals.

Most of the 601 patients currently in hospital are showing positive
responses to the new treatment protocol. 67 of them are receiving
treatment in an intensive care unit.

Meanwhile, an additional 75 patients with symptoms of atypical pneumonia
were admitted to public hospitals. They include 4 healthcare workers and
52 patients from Amoy Gardens. The remaining 19 were new patients and
contacts of patients with atypical pneumonia.

A 83-year-old man died in United Christian Hospital, bringing to 16 the
total number of deaths relating to atypical pneumonia. Most of the deaths
occurred in individuals who have a history of chronic diseases, or were
patients who sought treatment at a relatively late stage of infection.

The cumulative figure for patients who have been admitted to public
hospitals with atypical pneumonia since 12 Mar 2003 is as follows:

(The numbers in bracket are those with pneumonia symptoms)

Health care workers of Hospitals/Clinics and medical students 168 (168)
     49 of the patients were discharged
Patients, family members & visitors 517 (517)
     35 of the patients were discharged

Total admission 685 (685)
     84 were discharged

[B] Residents of Block E moved to holiday villages 1 Apr 2003

Deputy Director of Health, Dr P Y Leung, said residents of Block E at Amoy
Gardens were being moved tonight (1 Apr 2003) into 2 holiday villages in
Sai Kung and Lei Yue Mun.

He said the residents of the block, which has seen a high incidence of
atypical pneumonia, would be kept at Lady MacLehose Holiday Village and
Lei Yue Mun Park Holiday Village until the end of the isolation order.

Dr Leung said health officials were now investigating whether
environmental factors could have contributed to the spread of the disease
at Amoy Gardens. The operation was being jointly carried out by the
Department of Health, the Police and Civil Aid Service. Dr Leung said the
residents would be provided with daily necessities and food during their
stay at the holiday villages. They would also be given regular medical
checks. He said Block E was still under isolation orders and would be
under Police protection to ensure residents' flats were not broken into.

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