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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Epidemic Is Killing Pigs in Southeastern China |
| 2007-05-08 |
| helloooooo? future pandemic? ht to Instapundit A mysterious epidemic is killing pigs in southeastern China, but international and Hong Kong authorities said today that the Chinese government is providing little information about it, or about the contaminated wheat gluten that has caused deaths and illnesses in other animals. The lack of even basic details is reviving longstanding questions about whether China is willing to share information about health and food safety issues with potential global implications. or any information? The Chinese government — and particularly the government of Guangdong Province, which is adjacent to Hong Kong — was criticized in 2003 for concealing information about the SARS virus for the first four months after it emerged in Foshan, 95 miles northwest of Hong Kong. After SARS spread to Hong Kong and around the world, top Chinese officials promised to improve disclosure. But officials in Hong Kong as well as at the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization, both agencies of the United Nations, said today that they been told almost nothing about the latest pig deaths, and been given limited details about wheat gluten contamination. Because pigs can catch many of the same diseases as people, including bird flu, the two U.N. agencies maintain global networks to track and investigate unexplained patterns of pig deaths. Hong Kong television broadcasts and newspapers were full of lurid accounts today of pigs staggering around with blood pouring from their bodies in Gaoyao and neighboring Yunfu, both in Guangdong Province. The Apple Daily newspaper said that as many as 80 percent of the pigs in the area had died, that panicky farmers were selling ailing animals at deep discounts and that pig carcasses were floating in a river. The reports in Hong Kong said the disease began killing pigs after the Chinese New Year celebrations in February, and is now spreading. But state-controlled news outlets in China have reported almost nothing about the pig deaths, and very little about the wheat gluten problem. go figure? A man answering the phone at the city government offices in Gaoyao, 140 miles northwest of Hong Kong, confirmed late this afternoon that pigs were dying there. He declined to give his name. Dr. Kwok Ka-ki, a surgeon who represents the medical profession in Hong Kong’s legislature, said that the Chinese government should share all pig-death information with the Chinese public and with the city of Hong Kong, which Britain returned to Chinese control in 1997. “They definitely need to tell the public, but also people in the city, as to the extent of the outbreak, how is the disease being controlled and the impact on public health,” he said. “It would help a lot to relieve the worry, and it would help the rest of China to fight the disease.” There have been no reports of people becoming ill from the disease. But the SARS experience has left Hong Kong with lasting jitters about mysterious diseases in mainland China. Medical experts said that the extent of the bleeding from the pigs, including reports of bloody skin lesions, did not sound like the usual symptoms of bird flu, but added that the pig deaths nonetheless needed to be investigated. Two spokeswomen for the Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said that the Guangdong authorities had told the department only that no live pigs were being shipped from the Yunfu and Gaoyao area to Hong Kong. A spokesman for the Hong Kong Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said that there were no signs of suspicious deaths among Hong Kong’s pigs, and referred questions about pigs in Guangdong to the food department. Both departments said last week, in written responses to questions, that they were not testing wheat gluten imported from the mainland for the presence of melamine scrap, a residue from the manufacture of a chemical used in plastics production. The presence of melamine scrap in pet food has been linked to the deaths of as many as 4,000 cats and dogs in the United States, and prompted the culling of chickens that ate contaminated feed. Hong Kong officials expressed surprise today when they were told that the official Xinhua news agency mentioned a month ago that the mainland had begun nationwide testing of wheat gluten for melamine. Animal-feed dealers in northeastern China said late last month that the two main destinations for feed mixed with melamine had been the Yangtze delta region near Shanghai and the Pearl River delta region near Hong Kong. China has allowed American regulators to visit the country and begin investigating the wheat gluten problem, after initially declining to issue them visas. |
| Posted by:Frank G |
| #18 Zen, learn us some good jokes plz. >:) |
| Posted by: RD 2007-05-08 23:56 |
| #17 Jeebus Zen! |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2007-05-08 17:00 |
| #16 Also, China has to worry if this jumps to people : tourists tend to avoid hemorrhagic fever zones and the Beijing Olympics could be endangered by something like that. If Southern China does become a Hot Zone, it is likely that most countries will boycott the Beijing Olympics simply from a public health and safety point of view. This is yet one more potential epidemic coming from China. While such a large coutry represents an ideal incubator for new viral strains, China does little to avoid exacerbating the problem with poisoning the environment, inadequate sewage processing, chemical contamination that weakens animal resistance and a host of other poor hygeinic practices that breed up all sorts of nastiness. The hidden cost is that to the global community. The SARS virus cost Canada alone billions in lost tourist revenue. Medical expenses from the endless stream of infectious diseases pouring out of China cost this world untold other billions. China is a pariah nation that is one of the absolute worst neighbors, especially for its size and economy. They might as well be some festering African shithole for the trouble they cause. We seriously need to withhold all foreign medical aid in the face of these self-induced crises. China needs to experience a catastrophic financial drain upon its own resources as a penalty for malign neglect general incompetence. This is one of the few ways that China's gross pollution, unfair trade practices and currency manipulation can be adequately penalized. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-05-08 16:33 |
| #15 Some human hemorrhagic fevers do included skin lesions among symptoms - Marburg especially, 2-7 days post onset. Bruising (purpura) and hemorrhagic lesions also common in CCHF. Rash/petechiae common in some variants of hemorrhagic dengue. |
| Posted by: sofia 2007-05-08 12:39 |
| #14 Map of Guangdong Province: http://www.maps-of-china.com/guangdong-s-ow.shtml |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-05-08 09:57 |
| #13 I suspect poisoning. If it was hemorrhagic disease, it would be unlikely that skin lesions would appear--not enough time. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-05-08 09:55 |
| #12 Pork is by far the major protein product in East Asia (excluding the fish-eaters of Japan). Any threat to that product has to be of concern. |
| Posted by: Sneaze 2007-05-08 08:06 |
| #11 "In China's time zone, the first day of the Red Pig Year is February 4th, 2007." Hey, looks like this fortune cookie came good. |
| Posted by: Classer 2007-05-08 06:20 |
| #10 Yes, Shieldwolf, the Olympics! That's gotta be their weak link. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2007-05-08 06:03 |
| #9 Pork is huge in China : the major meat ingredient for many Chinese dishes. The loss of a couple of provinces' pig herds can cause general unrest, the kind that leads to rural revolts. Also, China has to worry if this jumps to people : tourists tend to avoid hemorrhagic fever zones and the Beijing Olympics could be endangered by something like that. If Southern China does become a Hot Zone, it is likely that most countries will boycott the Beijing Olympics simply from a public health and safety point of view. |
| Posted by: Shieldwolf 2007-05-08 05:31 |
| #8 Compare to IPSNEWS > CHINDIA [China-India]: THE EMERGENCE OF A FUTURE WORLD SUPERPOWER. You just know RUSSIA isn't gonna be happy. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-05-08 05:15 |
| #7 Well, it's more like Beijing has no power in the provinces. It's all rapacious local officials. It's the local officials that treat their own people like animals. What would Alec Baldwin think if he met a gimme-cap wearing truck driver? |
| Posted by: gromky 2007-05-08 03:59 |
| #6 Maybe I'm just old and cynical but somehow I can't see the powers that be in Beijing caring much about the deaths of some backwoods farmers in the hinterlands. I suspect the mandarins see them as "useless mouths" and would not be bothered in the slightest about their demise--no matter how big the numbers--unless it somehow ends up redounding to China's international discredit. Absent such an motivating effect, Beijing's power elite has other, and far more pressing, concerns to deal with. |
| Posted by: Mac 2007-05-08 03:16 |
| #5 Sounds like a variant of hemmorrhagic fever. If so, the Chinese better hope that it does not jump between species : Ebola and Crimean-Congo are two that did. |
| Posted by: Shieldwolf 2007-05-08 02:38 |
| #4 Surprise, surprise...government denies there's a problem, refuses to investigate. Remember SARS? It took the threat of a lethal global epidemic (the blame for which would be placed squarely on China) to get the government to move last time. You really think they're going to move for anything less? |
| Posted by: gromky 2007-05-08 01:31 |
| #3 ALTERNET > CHINA vs THE WORLD > CHINA [modernizations]THREATENING THE WORLD'S ENVIRONMENT. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-05-08 01:15 |
| #2 The wrath of Allan! |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2007-05-08 00:44 |
| #1 SPACEWAR and other NET News sites had previous articles on China's massive pollution problems, including how farm animals were wallowing in the stuff, and how neither farmers nor local Party oficials had viable plans to resolve the situation. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-05-08 00:06 |