Beijing restricts reporting on pig disease

[dArKeR]

BLACKOUT: Authorities ordered reporters not to travel to southwest Sichuan Province, where the disease has so far killed 34 farmers, and to limit coverage to Xinhua reports

AP , HONG KONG
Monday, Aug 01, 2005,Page 1


Chinese authorities have banned local reporters from visiting areas where an outbreak of a pig-borne disease has killed 34 farmers, ordering newspapers to use dispatches from the state news agency, a Hong Kong newspaper reported yesterday.
A total of 174 confirmed or suspected cases have been linked to the bacteria streptococcus suis in China's southwestern Sichuan Province, where farmers who handled or butchered infected pigs have been sickened in dozens of villages and towns. Symptoms include nausea, fever, vomiting, and bleeding under the skin.

Sichuan authorities have ordered local journalists to stay away from locations where the disease has surfaced, and told newspapers to carry stories as issued by the official Xinhua News Agency, including the headline, Hong Kong's Ming Pao Daily News reported.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2005/08/01/2003265905

[madrchsod]

1. that`s pretty much standard policy

for our walmart partners..

[kestrel91316]

3. Journalists make great fomites. Best to keep them away for now.

[still_one]

7. I disagree

that is the same logic they used for embedded journalists in Iraq

Instead it really is censorship

[kestrel91316]

10. I would rather the journalists stay home for the most part .........

they could make things much worse through their ignorance of basic infection control procedures.

[still_one]

11. You and I will have to agree to disagree then

I do not believe in censorship or filtering here or there

[kestrel91316]

2. Found link to info on S. suis as a zoonosis

http://research.ucsb.edu/connect/pro/disease.html

What is interesting here is S. suis is said to have a 8% mortality rate in humans, so there could be a new, very nasty strain in China (wouldn't be the first time a new nasty bug came from there). Also, it usually leaves the human survivors deaf. Symptoms are fever and meningitis. So the business going on in China is much more severe.

[still_one]

5. or it could be something else

[wli]

4. biological weapons?

Kind of doubtful, but there have been a lot of odd new diseases cropping up in China lately (SARS, bird flu, now this).

[still_one]

8. no way

[still_one]

6. that is NOT good

it begs the question what are they hiding

after the sars fiasco you would have thought they learned something

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

9. Yeah, ignore it China... worked really well with everything

else, didn't it?

Dumbasses.

[cire4]

12. Not exactly ignoring....

"Hiding" would be a better word.

Trust me, this is exactly the type of thing that scares the shit out of the Chinese government, which is why they are trying to hide it as much as possible. But I can assure you that they are definitely not ignoring it.