Word: caseload
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...respiratory syndrome (SARS) puzzles a senior hospital administrator from Shanghai's Huangpu district. A month ago, visiting experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) said Shanghai would relax its superstringent standards for diagnosing suspected SARS patients to conform with international norms. That should have caused the city's tiny caseload of suspected SARS patients to increase substantially. But just a couple of days after the WHO's announcement, the hospital administrator was curtly informed by local health-bureau officials that the standards would not be changed. Then, last week, after the Ministry of Health had further broadened the national standards...
...weeks roll by and the promised adjustment to Shanghai's suspected SARS caseload hasn't materialized, a restive undercurrent has many beginning to wonder how a city of 16 million could be so lucky as to have just a handful of SARS patients. Residents aver that they aren't worried yet; nevertheless, face masks and vitamin C are in short supply. "I don't think anyone believes there are hundreds of cases being hidden here, like in Beijing," says a Shanghai respiratory-disease specialist who, along with other doctors in Shanghai, has been forbidden by the local propaganda department...
...opaqueness of Shanghai's suspected SARS caseload could be the kind of numbers game that dents that faith. The hospital administrator from Huangpu district says he was told the WHO did not oppose Shanghai's decision to keep its old diagnostic standard. But a WHO spokes-person in Beijing denies that is the case. "If Shanghai's still using the old standards, they're contravening national regulations," says the spokesperson. Indeed, the WHO has been expecting Shanghai's suspected SARS caseload to increase, but instead it has remained flat since April...
...Diseases Hospital told TIME that there were more than 30 suspected cases checked into his hospital alone. In a press conference last Friday, visiting WHO experts said Shanghai had agreed to reform its accounting methods to international norms, which will mean a "substantial increase" in the city's suspected caseload...
...secure their victory Hu and Wen will have to bring SARS under control quickly, and it's not clear that is possible. In Beijing alone, the caseload has been rising by an average of 100 patients a day, and there is no sign that the contagion has been contained. To cope with the ballooning number of victims, the central government is desperately beefing up the country's inadequate health-care infrastructure. Last week, construction of a 1,000-bed SARS treatment facility on the outskirts of the capital was completed in an astonishing six days. Yet the WHO is worried...