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| Initial findings on SARS cluster cases in Hong Kong |
| CCTV.COM 2003-05-17 09:05:01 |
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An initial report by the World Health Organization has put the spread of SARS in Hong Kong's Amoy Gardens housing complex down to an unlucky chain of events. The WHO investigation team believes one SARS spreader triggered off the first set of infections and that contaminated sewage and the sharing of communal facilities also played a role.
In March a cluster of SARS cases occurred in Block E of the Amoy Garden residential complex. 321 people became infected with the SARS virus and 35 of them died. Experts from The World Health Organization investigation team today announced to the public their initial findings on the causes behind the spread.
Dr. Heinz Feldmann, head of the WHO investigation panel, said today the outbreak was caused by droplets containing the SARS virus, which traveled through the housing complex as a result of the plumbing and ventilation arrangements in some bathrooms.
The disease was brought to the Block E building of Amoy Gardens by a SARS－infected man visiting his brother. The man had diarrhea and others who caught SARS in the building also developed diarrhea, spreading huge loads of the virus into the sewage system
Exhaust fans installed in bathrooms were running with the doors closed. The WHO experts said contaminated droplets apparently were drawn into some apartment units from a sewage pipe through dried－out floor drains. The exhaust fans could also have moved contaminated droplets into a light well, where air drafts moved them into other apartments through open windows.
While the WHO said Amoy Gardens did meet international standards, the building had been modified, with resident adding exhaust fans and air conditioners that were too big for the apartments, helping to spread the disease. Since the outbreak, the estate has been thoroughly disinfected. The WHO team has made sample tests of entrances, corridors, balconies, basements and floor drain traps and has found no SARS contaminated droplets.
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Editor: Han Ling CCTV.com
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