It was lunch hour at The First Village of Wild Food, and if anyone in the restaurant was worried that SARS might again be spreading in this city, they were not showing it. Huang Sheng was more worried about which of the small animals in black metal cages would become his midday meal.
Patrons can choose from species of fowl, two dark-haired pigs, a tiny species of deer or several fat rabbits. Nearby, butchers were skinning a flying fox as blood seeped onto the floor. Huang pointed at two wide-eyed civet cats, the small mammal that some studies suggest may have caused the original SARS outbreak.
"Very good, very good," Huang said on Sunday of the civet's flavor. Asked if he worried about eating wild game in light of SARS, Huang said he saw no risk. "It's no big deal. It's not a problem."
For many in this south China metropolis, the disclosure that a local man was hospitalized with an illness that was suspected to be SARS brought the same reaction. Newspapers carried the story on front pages, yet very few people were wearing the surgical masks that were so common early this year when the World Health Organization warned travelers against coming to Guangzhou.
In interviews around the city, people agreed that SARS could again pose a genuine health and economic threat to the city. Yet, people also voiced confidence in the same government whose secrecy and inaction were blamed for the initial outbreak. It began in November 2002 with a single case not far from this city and within months had spread globally.
"This time, if SARS comes again, the government will handle it much better," said Xian Minxian, 33, a saleswoman. "It has experience."
ILLUSTRATION MOUNTAIN PEOPLE
If the suspected case here proves to be SARS, it would be the first in mainland China since July. Health officials in Beijing have already stepped up health screenings at air and train terminals, while Shanghai officials were also said to be taking measures. Other health departments across China also are increasing various health checks, state news organizations reported.
The patient, a 32-year-old freelance television journalist, remained quarantined in stable condition at No 8 People's Hospital. The state media reported that 42 people, including 32 medical workers, who came in contact with the patient have also been quarantined, though none have developed fever or other symptoms of SARS.
The patient was admitted to a hospital on Dec. 20, originally with his condition diagnosed as pneumonia. The state media reported that Chinese experts on Friday detected the SARS virus in one of his lungs. But other tests have been inconclusive. The World Health Organization has called for blood samples to be tested outside China. The organization, at the request of the Chinese Ministry of Health, is also sending a laboratory expert, who is expected to arrive in Beijing on Monday.
"The patient does not appear to be infectious, and he is recovering rather quickly," a leading Chinese SARS expert, Dr Zhong Nanshan, told the state media. "It is not strange that a few cases of SARS should re-emerge, so there is no reason for people in the city to panic."
Here in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangzhou Province, health officials had already instituted a three-tiered alert system to raise public awareness about the disease. Local health officials steered questions to the National Health Ministry, but one local official said the current situation had not yet warranted the lowest alert status.
Outside the No 8 Hospital, Cai Guangkui, 27, was one of only a handful of people seen wearing a mask. He knew about the suspected SARS case and said he was wearing the mask because he was visiting a friend who worked in the hospital. Yet he pulled it down as he walked away and said he would not put it back on.
"I suspect SARS might happen again, but I think the internal measures are pretty good now," he said, referring to quarantining procedures. "I'm not as worried about it as I was during the first half of the year. We have confidence in the protective measures of the government."
Luo Aimen, 30, a migrant worker from Sichuan Province who now delivers newspapers in Guangzhou, also applauded the government, saying it had "learned a lesson before." He even took comfort in the clear skies. "The sun is shining and it will kill the virus," he said. "And the government will do good."
Some experts have called on China to do more research into the possible animal links to the disease, noting the studies that suggest the disease may have jumped from civets to humans. Others have called for better regulation of wild animal markets.
At the First Village of Wild Food restaurant, which is decorated in a Mao nostalgia theme, the wild game is kept downstairs. Patrons can select their animal or bird, then walk upstairs to the dining room. Butchers at cutting tables near the cages quickly kill and skin the animals. Blood and other fluids that spill onto the floor are washed with hoses into a drainage channel.
One chef, denying any connection between wild game and the disease, said the restaurant slaughtered and prepared meat the same way it did before SARS became a household word. He said Guangdong Province residents had a reputation for eating exotic foods, a taste not even SARS could deter.
"People have been eating this since the founding of the People's Republic of China," the chef said. "We're not worried."
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