CHINA TRIES TO COVER UP HFM EPIDEMIC - BOXUN

[Treyfish]

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>CHINA TRIES TO COVER UP EPIDEMIC AS WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY MEETS IN GENEVA
By RSF
May 16, 2007 - 11:15:08 PM

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Reporters Without Borders today voiced indignation that national and Shandong provincial authorities in eastern China tried to censor news about an epidemic of hand-foot-mouth disease which has reportedly infected scores of children since the end of April 2007.
And the worldwide press freedom organisation urged the World Health Assembly currently meeting in Geneva to formally respond to "this unacceptable censorship of news" about the Chinese epidemic.
"One thought that the local and national authorities had learned their lesson from the results of imposing media censorship at the start of the SARS epidemic in 2002," Reporters Without Borders said. "Evidently, bad habits die hard. Chinese officials prefer to silence the media rather than protect the people."
Chinese officials finally acknowledged on 12 May that an infant had died and several dozen other children had been infected with the disease in Linyi, Shandong province since the end of April. The Shandong Health Bureau condemned "rumors" that 26 children had died in the epidemic, in a statement on its website on 13 May.
A number of Chinese websites and newspapers, including the Shanghai Morning Post, reported that the authorities had covered up the epidemic, prompting panic in Linyi. Nearly 300 people, mainly children, are being treated in the city's hospitals.
Hand-foot-mouth is a viral infection which starts in the throat and is caused by the Coxsackie virus. It can be fatal if there are complications.
The Chinese authorities in 2002 and 2003 after banning publication of articles about the SARS epidemic for several months went in for a rapid turnaround in which they involved the media in a national propaganda campaign to fight the disease.

 

[Treyfish]

Re: CHINA TRIES TO COVER UP HFM EPIDEMIC - BOXUN

<TABLE borderColor=#0066cc height=347 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR align=middle><TD class=biaoti1 vAlign=center colSpan=3 height=40>Experts advise : Do not Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease confused with foot-and-mouth disease </TD></TR><TR class=biaoti1 align=middle><TD vAlign=center colSpan=3 height=20></TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=3 height=16>

2007-05-18 15:53:22​

2007-05-18 15:53:22​

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BEIJING, (Xinhua Xian. Ting Zhou Yu), referring to some of the masses of Linyi in Shandong of hand-foot-mouth disease and the foot-and-mouth disease epidemic confused the issuethe Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) disease prevention and control, Li, director of the new fellows on the 17th that the hand-foot-mouth disease and the disease is two completely different diseases, and must not to be confused.

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Reportedly, the hand-foot-mouth disease is common infectious diseases in infants and is not part of our statutory report infectious diseases; foot-and-mouth disease in animals is a serious highly contagious viral disease mainly infected cattle, pigs and other cloven-hoofed animals.

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Li said that the hand-foot-mouth disease and the source of infection for patients, the mode of transmission, pathogenesis and so different from the crowd.Foot-and-mouth disease pathogens to foot-and-mouth disease virus is a zoonotic disease, the first sick animal, people can be infected : HFMD mainly caused by intestinal infection, the source of infection for patients and subclinical infection, those human diseases. Foot-and-mouth disease through contact with sick animals, skin and mucous infection; Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease, mainly through contact with contaminated daily supplies, utensils, toys, oral infections, or transmitted through the respiratory tract. Suffering from foot-and-mouth disease decided to contact with sick animals, the incidence broad age groups; Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease is mainly infants and children of infectious diseases, five children under the age of majority.

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In addition, the foot-and-mouth and hand-foot-mouth disease have different symptoms and signs.

征。​

After the onset of foot-and-mouth disease mainly fever and other systemic symptoms and skin damage two major features. HFMD most low fever, respiratory symptoms and oral herpes and fingers, foot, hip, knee papules.:tiphat: http://66.249.91.104/translate_c?hl...tp://www.langya.com.cn/qdxw/200705/t93967.htm
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[Theresa42]

Re: CHINA TRIES TO COVER UP HFM EPIDEMIC - BOXUN

From the Beijing Newspeak blog by Chris O'Brien, "Language Polisher" at the Xinhua News Agency...

Delayed reporting lands China in hot water again - and again
May 16, 2007

Inexplicable delays in the reporting of news are part of the course in China and are often justified as necessary ways to avoid public panic. The initial response to the SARS epidemic is a famous example of why this reasoning is just unacceptable. Yet it continues to happen and the central government is seen backing local authorities who have sat on an important piece of news for two weeks.

Over the weekend, on May 12 to be exact, I received a story about a two-year-old who had died from an outbreak of hand-foot-mouth disease in a city in Shandong. The girl actually died on April 29. The details were typically vague:

The spokesman also said that there had been ?some cases? of the disease since the beginning of the year, without providing specific figures.

I added in a couple of lines which read something like, ?The spokesman did not explain why the girl?s death was not reported for two weeks?. It was removed by the senior editor. I also pointed out that the girl?s death occurred just before the May national holiday - government officials aren?t big fans of bad news at holiday time especially if it means they have to cancel plans. This point also casts doubt over the reliability of the claim:

After the girl had died, the city?s health bureau carried out epidemiology research across the city, quarantining those infected by the disease and informing kindergartens and schools.

Schools are closed during the holiday. Unsurprisingly, the senior editor took it upon himself to tap the delete button once again.

I thought that would be the last I would hear of the incident. But it seems various Chinese media sources have been conducting some fruitful investigative work leading to the Shandong Health Bureau being forced to deny a cover-up of multiple infant deaths....

http://www.beijingnewspeak.com/2007/05/16/delayed-reporting-lands-china-in-hot-water-again/

 

[Theresa42]

Re: CHINA TRIES TO COVER UP HFM EPIDEMIC - BOXUN

Interesting comment on the blog post above:

Charlie | 16-May-07 at 9:36 am | Permalink

I agree the delay is a real problem - and the two week period certainly suggests some “thinking time”. However, I don’t believe all the delays are because of this - sometimes it as much to do with the information release mechanisms.

A case in point was the initial stages of bird flu - on several occasions CD had the information that there had been another outbreak and was ready to release it, but it had to wait until Xinhua reported it. Why did it have to wait for Xinhua? Because Xinhua was having to wait for the Ministry of Agriculture’s own newspaper to report it, because they wanted the scoop.

Which is all pretty stupid.

Of course, there were other problems with the bird flu reporting - when Xinhua did release the news it was always after midnight, presumably timed so that it was missed by many of the newspapers and was old and stale by the time the next deadline came, and put online when most people were offline.

I’m they’ll be adhering to regulations even with this type of trick - but it is hardly putting public health and the concerns of the people in first place.

http://www.beijingnewspeak.com/2007...-lands-china-in-hot-water-again/#comment-1428

"...when Xinhua did release the news it was always after midnight, presumably timed so that it was missed by many of the newspapers and was old and stale by the time the next deadline came, and put online when most people were offline...."

I've noticed the exact same thing with MENA [the Middle East News Agency] -- the governmental news agency in Egypt. They almost always release news about bf cases in the middle of the night in Egypt.

 

[Treyfish]

Re: CHINA TRIES TO COVER UP HFM EPIDEMIC - BOXUN

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=556 border=0 valign="top"><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD vAlign=top width=2 bgColor=white></TD><TD vAlign=top width=554><!-- start: main content --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" summary="" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD align=left><INPUT onclick="javascript:this.disabled=true; doSubmit('Back');" type=button value=Back></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE summary=""><TBODY><TR><TD noWrap align=right>Archive Number</TD><TD noWrap align=left>20070520.1604</TD></TR><TR><TD noWrap align=right>Published Date</TD><TD noWrap align=left>20-MAY-2007</TD></TR><TR><TD noWrap align=right>Subject</TD><TD noWrap align=left>PRO/EDR> Hand, foot & mouth disease - China (Shandong) (03)</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
HAND, FOOT & MOUTH DISEASE - CHINA (SHANDONG) (03)**************************************************A ProMED-mail post<[URL="http://www.promedmail.org>Date"]http://www.promedmail.org>Date[/URL]: Sun 20 May 2007Source: Canada.com, Canadian Press [edited]<http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=c7dac7a0-f19e-4247-bdb1-e8564109ef3a&k=88653>An outbreak of a viral disease common in children has sickened almost 900 people in eastern China, but the outbreak has been contained, state media reported on Sat 19 May 2007. The outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) began in late April 2007 in the city of Linyi in Shandong province, the Xinhua News Agency said.About 470 patients had recovered by Friday [18 May 2007], and another 393 people -- mostly children -- were still sick, with more than half still in the hospital, the Xinhua News Agency said, citing Bao Wenhui, the deputy director of the provincial health department.The latest information was probably a response to media reports earlier this week that said more than 2 dozen children had died and that there had been a cover-up. The reports also said the true figures had not been released to prevent public panic. Local health officials dismissed those reports as rumors.China has in the past been accused of foot-dragging in releasing information about outbreaks of diseases such as bird flu and severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. A 2 year old girl diagnosed as a probable HFMD patient died on 29 Apr 2007, but no other deaths have been reported since, Xinhua stated. HFMD is common in young children and is characterized by fever, mouth sores and a rash with blisters. It is not related to foot and mouth disease, which infects cattle, sheep and swine. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describes HFMD as mild and says nearly all patients recover in 7 to 10 days without medical treatment. But [rarely] the disease may also lead to more serious and fatal diseases such as encephalitis or a type of paralysis, according to CDC.Xinhua said local health departments have launched a public awareness campaign and quarantined children who are sick. Shandong [province] reported 2477 cases of HFMD in 2005, including one death, and 3030 cases in 2006, 2 of which were fatal, the report said.</PRE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></P>