In early February 2003, Professor Liu, 64 years old, worked part-time at the Second Sun Yat-Sen Hospital in Guangdong, where a number of patients with pneumonia of unknown cause were treated.
Dr. Liu had a fever, but after taking antibiotics, he still felt well enough to take a bus with his wife to Hong Kong to attend a nephew’s wedding.
Funeral photo of doctor Liu Jianlun, who passed away in Hong Kong in March 2003.
On the morning of February 22, Luu had a fever, difficulty breathing and a fast heartbeat.
However, Liu was wrong.
The SARS epidemic started in Guangdong in November 2002, the virus spread from bats to civet cats sold at the market and then transmitted to humans.
On February 10, 2003, China reported this epidemic to WHO.
Dr. Liu was not only the first SARS patient in Hong Kong, he was also considered a `super-spreader` who infected at least 23 people at the hotel, many of whom were on the 9th floor with him.
According to WHO, more than 4,000 cases of SARS infection in the world are related to Mr. Liu’s stay on the 9th floor of the Hong Kong Metropole Hotel, but how he transmitted the virus to other guests in the hotel is still a mystery.
Some investigators believe that Mr. Liu may have vomited in front of the hotel room door and that people passing by were unknowingly infected with the virus.
Chinese-American Johnny Cheng, who lived across from Dr. Luu’s room at the hotel, brought the SARS virus to Vietnam.
Italian doctor Carlo Urbani, an infectious disease expert at the WHO, was one of those who examined Cheng.
SARS infected 65 people and killed 5 in Vietnam.
On February 23, 2003, woman Kwan Sui-Chu, also staying in the same hotel as Dr. Luu, returned to Toronto from Hong Kong.
On March 1, 2003, Singaporean girl Esther Mok, another guest at the hotel, was admitted to Tan Tock Seng Hospital after returning home from Hong Kong.
On March 4, 2003, a 27-year-old man who visited guests on the 9th floor of the hotel was admitted to the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong.
The SARS epidemic was controlled in 2003 and no cases have been reported since 2004. The current Covid-19 epidemic also comes from the same coronavirus strain as SARS.
British businessman Steve Walsh is considered a `super-spreader` of Covid-19 after contracting the disease while attending a conference in Singapore and infecting 11 other people after going to a ski resort in France.
Countries with patients infected with corona virus.
Catherine Chim, an accountant who lives near the building that used to be the Metropole hotel in Kowloon, said that Hong Kong people’s fear of Covid-19 is worse than SARS in the past.
`We have had 17 years to prepare. We cannot let what happened 17 years ago repeat,` said Dr. Alfred Wong at Tuen Mun Hospital in Hong Kong.
