Asia Times: New SARS Disaster Looms In Beijing

HONG KONG - In recent days, a community in Beijing has been living in a state of constant anxiety. It has experienced what may prove to be as large a localized outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome as occurred in Hong Kong's now-famous Amoy Gardens, where in late March more than 300 people were infected with SARS, of whom 35 eventually died. It is obvious that some people have covered up the outbreak, and the situation has not been represented whatsoever in government-issued SARS statistics.

The outbreak occurred outside of Beijing's Fifth Ring Road - the outskirts of the Chinese capital - in Beiyuan Gardens, a large residential complex. Residents have indicated that the property developer responsible for managing the complex has consistently neglected to report the outbreak out of fear of the effect on property sales that would result from public knowledge of such an outbreak. Dozens of proprietors within Beiyuan Gardens have complained to anti-SARS district offices in Laiguangying village (where the complex is located) and the upscale Chaoyang district (which administers Laiguangying) as well as Beijing's municipal anti-SARS office. It wasn't until recently that the property developer overseeing the complex posted notices in corridors of the complex.

A public announcement has been posted, but the most severely infected building, Building No 15 of the Xiuju Garden subcomplex, has yet to come under a full quarantine. Because the situation has been hidden from residents, the massive complex's numerous previously unaware residents (there are more than 10,000 residents in total) have continued their close contact with one another. This has led to the recent infection trend taking a significant upturn.

The complex's residents have already started to take numerous precautions on their own to protect themselves, including opening a temporary Internet forum to ensure that every resident has access to the most up-to-date information on the complex's outbreak.

Some residents have said that they telephoned a nearby district anti-SARS office and were informed that one resident had already died from SARS within a building in the complex's Qingyou Garden subcomplex. Moreover, there were residents in Xiuju Garden's buildings 10 and 15 who had already been diagnosed, in addition to suspected cases in buildings 9 and 6.

From the beginning, the Laiguangying village anti-SARS office did not want to report the situation, saying it was for the property-development company to report. But residents said the company would not say anything about it. Employees of the anti-SARS office expressed great displeasure with the company, as the office had already given it a name list with the expectation that it would report to Beijing.

A resident also indicated that one night last week they saw with their own eyes a No 120 ambulance remove a resident from Xiuju Garden Building 17 a little bit after 9 o'clock. Later that same night, after 10pm, the ambulance returned and removed someone from Building 15. The resident, who declined to be named, asked, "If there's a quarantine on those who have been in close contact [with confirmed or suspected cases] then it should have been implemented on [May] 26 or 27. Why wait until yesterday night?" In actuality, the only quarantines that exist in the complex are self-imposed quarantines that residents who fear having or contracting SARS have put upon themselves. The man added that he believed that the most pressing matter at hand was to seal off the entire complex, thus cutting off what certainly had the potential to become another source of a rapid outbreak in the surrounding area, including Beijing.

Beijing media have yet to report on the situation at Beiyuan Gardens. Some residents have tried to bring attention to their situation via public websites, but, for example, their information was deleted within less than a minute after posting it on the popular Internet portal Sina.com. Even their telephones are now unable to send out text messages - Beiyuan Gardens residents have become overnight outcasts.

Having fallen into despair, some residents of Beiyuan Gardens sent a letter to Wang Qishan, Beijing's new mayor. Wang came into his present office after Meng Xuenong, the previous mayor, was removed from his post on April 20 as a result of the previous cover-up of the city's SARS epidemic. Complex residents are still waiting for Mayor Wang's response. The entire letter follows:

Esteemed Mr Mayor:

Hello sir!

The SARS cases throughout the country and including Beijing are steadily decreasing, yet Beiyuan Gardens, situated in Chaoyang district's Laiguangying village, has become an overlooked corner in the battle against SARS.

The outbreak here is increasingly severe: In Xiuju Garden's Building 15 alone, there are three diagnosed SARS cases in apartments 1408, 1501 and 1701 as well as one suspected SARS infection. The most recent case was diagnosed on May 27, and the infected resident has spent three days and three nights in the neighborhood's Laiguangying clinic (this "clinic" was set up in a ground-floor shop in a residential building - next to a store and a supermarket that both have a steady flow of customers). At present we have registered 138 people in the clinic, all of whom urgently need to be quarantined and examined. In addition, Qingyou Garden's Building 20 also has a confirmed case who died on May 8. There are also suspected cases in [Qingyou Garden's] buildings 12 and 15. Zihuan Garden Building 9 has one suspected case.

Beiyuan Gardens is a large-scale residential community with about 10,000 residents. There are also a few thousand construction workers continuing their work on projects on the premises. New SARS cases have been emerging in Beiyuan Gardens from the beginning of May until the present. However, owing to it being situated outside of the Fifth Ring Road in a place that connects the city to the countryside, the task of governing the complex is left to the property developer charged with managing the community.

As for the manner in which the aforementioned company has managed [Beiyuan Gardens], its supervisory efforts have been lacking. The property developer, in order to forestall the negative effects of an outbreak on property sales in the development, has consistently not reported anything. It wasn't until after dozens of property owners registered multiple complaints with the Laiguangying, Chaoyang and Beijing municipal anti-SARS offices that the property developer decided recently to post announcements of SARS infections in the corridors of the affected buildings. Yet, even as of today, Xiuju Garden building 15 has still not implemented a complete isolation and quarantine. Now in places within the community such as Qingyou Garden trash is piling up as it falls from the sky. There are no disinfection arrangements. There is no garbage collection. Up to today, the people who are moving into the area have been scurrying about. The community's multiple clinics, and squalid neighborhood hospital have yet to be sealed off. There is nobody taking responsibility for disinfecting the community.

Beijing's SARS infections are decreasing, thanks to the diligent efforts of the municipal Party committee, the municipal government and every Beijing resident, so why are the SARS infections in Beiyuan Gardens still going up? The explanation is very simple. It's due to the property developer and Laiguangying village's government not viewing the situation as important. Their covering up of this outbreak has led to the spread of SARS to people who were uninformed and in close contact with infected residents, and the situation is exhibiting a steady upward trend.

In order to ensure the lives and health of the tens of thousands of residents in Beiyuan Gardens and quickly stem the spread of SARS, we vehemently plead to relevant leaders within the municipal Party committee and the municipal government to open an investigation regarding the outbreak prevention situation in Beiyuan Gardens and to supervise and urge the Laiguangying Village government and the property developer to adopt the following feasible SARS control measures as soon as possible:

1) Implement complete isolation and quarantine of the building with the most severe outbreak, Xiuju Garden Building 15, and to conduct multiple quarantines and inspections of the other buildings and floors with residents who are confirmed or suspected SARS cases.

2) Conduct automatic examinations of anyone who has come into close contact with residents who are confirmed or suspected SARS cases instead of merely posting a notice telling them to go to the hospital for examination.

3) Implement a full quarantine, after a thorough disinfection, of the clinics in Xiuju Garden Building 3 and Building 16, as well as the community hospital on the ground floor of Building 17 in addition to forbidding the opening of clinics and hospitals in residential buildings.

4) Disinfect the garbage resulting from daily life and eliminate the piles of garbage in Qingyou Garden as soon as possible.

5) Require, on a daily basis, obvious posting of updates that reflect the community's true outbreak situation.

6) Require that the property developer purchase infra-red heat sensors, which are to be used to check the body temperature of every person who enters or leaves Beiyuan Gardens.

7) Disinfect elevators and hallways several times daily, while requiring that everyone who rides in an elevator don a face mask.

8) Strengthen the control of the flow of people in and out of Beiyuan Gardens.

In order to avoid a massive outbreak in Chaoyang district's Laiguangying village that attracts worldwide attention as in the case of Hong Kong's Amoy Gardens at this, the latest juncture in the fight against SARS, we hope with sorrowful hearts that the relevant leaders will adopt these measures as soon as possible. We must not let Beiyuan Gardens get left behind in the battle against SARS!

On May 28, the newest information on China's SARS situation was: Four new infections nationwide, three of them in Beijing, one of which was in Chaoyang, that very one was in Beiyuan Gardens!

Signed,

The residents of Beiyuan Gardens

May 29, 2003

Translated by Christopher Horton.

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