Media Blackout as Pig-Borne Disease Spreads
HONG KONG, August 13
2005
2005.08.03
HONG KONG—Authorities in the southwestern Chinese
province of Sichuan have issued a media blackout order surrounding a fatal
pig-borne disease, which has now spread to 10 cities, with at least 200
infections and dozens of fatalities.
"The death toll of the pig-borne endemic...had
reached 37 as of 12:00 a.m. Tuesday, with one new death reported, according to
the Chinese Ministry of Health," China's official Xinhua news agency
reported.
Xinhua's is currently the only version of events
available to both Chinese and overseas reporters alike, according to Hong Kong
reporters in Sichuan.
"A circular has been issued by the Sichuan
Provincial Propaganda Department...which forbids local press from sending
reporters to the infected areas or hospitals," the Chinese-language Ming Pao
reported.
Reporters banned from area
"No amendments of Xinhua reports are allowed,
including the headline," the paper said, citing local Chinese
reporters.
It said reports that the mystery disease, which is
said by Chinese health authorities to be caused by a bacteria called swine
streptococcus suis II, had reached the provincial capital of Chengdu had been
relegated to the inside pages of the top provincial newspapers.
According to Xinhua, 205 cases of the disease were
reported as of Tuesday, with 159 confirmed and 46 suspected. Eighteen people had
been discharged from hospital and 29 others were in critical condition, the
agency said.
An official with the Western Pacific arm of the
World Health Organization (WHO) called the outbreak "very unusual".
"Well at this time we are not really part of the
team that is in Sichuan...but it is of course of concern to China and to us that
there are so many cases of this outbreak. This is a highly unusual outbreak,"
the WHO spokesman said.
Former senior doctor at the Provincial People's
Hospital in the northern province of Shaanxi, Jin Fushen, told RFA's Mandarin
service that he couldn't say for sure why the local authorities had banned
reporters from covering the outbreak.
Doctors slam lack of transparency
"I think there are two aspects to this. One is that
they don't want the journalists to spread the disease. The other is that they
don't want the journalists to report on the reason that the disease is
spreading," Jin told RFA reporter Yang Jiadai.
"But it's not really right not to let them go into
the affected area...They're not likely to exaggerate the threat. Journalists
have a responsibility. It's their job to report objectively and truthfully what
is happening," he said.
He said local journalists could play a helpful role
for the government in helping to control this outbreak, which needed to be
contained within a 10-kilometer radius of all known infections.
"In China farming families revolve around their
pigs and cattle. There are many families who raise pigs. So if the 10-kilometer
rule is not followed, more infections are going to result."
And a former senior doctor at the Xuanwu District
People's Hospital in Beijing, Yu Jianmei, said that during an outbreak of
disease, the Chinese health authorities should understand very well the need not
to keep the public in the dark.
But in the heat of the moment, local officials were
apt to see social stability as more important than anything, she
said.
Stability the chief concern
"There are guidelines for outbreaks of disease,
what to do, how to react, whether it's from a point of view of epidemiology, or
from a public health perspective. The trouble with mainland China is that these
guidelines will not be followed."
"So they don't act in a scientific manner, which
causes a lot of ill-feeling."
Original reporting in Mandarin by Yan Ming and Yang
Jiadai. RFA Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Produced for the Web in
English by Luisetta Mudie.
Sarah Jackson-Han (jacksonhans@rfa.org)
Director of
Communications
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