New Yorkers warned of mystery disease [China News/update:Newsday:not true]

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2003-10/13/content_1120261.htm

New Yorkers warned of mystery disease

www.chinaview.cn 2003-10-13 10:37:42

??NEW YORK, Oct. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- The New York City Health Department has issued an alert after five residents in Staten Island, one of the five boroughs of the city, were hospitalized with what the department called a mystery illness.

??Four of the five patients, ranging in age from 22 to 54, are incritical condition at Staten Island University Hospital. Doctors said they are suffering from symptoms of encephalitis, a rare swelling of the brain, but they said they do not know at this stage what is causing the disease.

??Encephalitis is a symptom of the West Nile virus, but preliminary tests for the West Nile virus have been negative. Doctors are considering a strain of another virus that causes encephalitis and is also carried by mosquitoes and ticks.

<snip>

scary. and why is this in a china news release and not somewhere else?

update: another story(sounds like the china story is bogus):
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny--encephalitis1012oct12,0,3670195.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire

Health officials say no evidence of encephalitis outbreak on Staten Island
October 12, 2003, 8:15 PM EDT


NEW YORK (AP) _ Health officials said Sunday they had found no evidence of a feared outbreak of viral encephalitis on Staten Island.

On Saturday, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said it was concerned about an outbreak of the potentially deadly illness after five people were hospitalized with symptoms consistent with encephalitis, an inflammation of brain tissue.

One of those people was released from the hospital, and two others were found to have underlying health conditions that explained their illnesses.

scary. and why is this in a china news release and not somewhere else?

This should be reported in the United States.

existed after 9/11 weren't in the news. They need these people working and believing that everything is okey dokey.

Jeez, I felt like a freeper typing that!

But seriously, often times the news services in China and North Korea or other relatively totalitarian countries is distorted to give an unfavorable view of the West. Also, sometimes crises which take place within said countries go unreported to the outside world because of an unwillingness to appear vulnerable. Several Chinese famines come to mind.
Still, this kind of thing should be investigated and reported here in the US if it's as shocking as this story sounds.

If you read the newsday article again you will see that is says:

Health officials said Sunday they had found no evidence of a feared outbreak of viral encephalitis on Staten Island.

On Saturday, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said it was concerned about an outbreak of the potentially deadly illness after five people were hospitalized with symptoms consistent with encephalitis, an inflammation of brain tissue.


What happened is China News reported the Saturday statement, but that statement was withdrawn on Sunday.

So the China News story was not bogus nor untrue. It reported what was actually said, and now health officials are trying to downplay their original release. They point out that one was sent home (although no word on what caused his symptoms) and that two others had underlying health conditions that explained their symptoms. However, they try to downplay the fact that two others were still in serious condition and that there was as yet no explanation of their symptoms.

Now, compare this to the reporting of the SARS virus, where for months we were lied to over how dangerous it supposedly was, even though in the end nothing much came of it beyond what I was trying to point out at the time, which was that it was a particulaly nasty flu-like virus that was dangerous to older and infirm people, much like Influenza

I don't think there is much to this either, but the difference is pretty stark. In one case, a nasty flu was blown up into "the end of the world", while in this case a serious condition is being downplayed as much as possible.

Does the fact that one originated in China and the other in New York have any bearing on the difference in reporting? I think so.

difference between china and the US may have contributed to the order of the stories appearing in the timeline in google.com news. the china story appeared as newer, so i saw it first.

at any rate, the whole thing seemed important enough to post.