SARS have brought some positive impacts on social/family support, mental health awareness and lifestyle changes. These positive impacts were associated with other relevant negative impacts and might be important cushions of the negative impact.

No abstract

This study aims to investigate Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-related behaviours of travellers returning to Hong Kong by air. A total of 820 travellers returning to Hong Kong by air were interviewed about their SARS-related behaviours in April 2003. Three quarters of the respondents wore a mask most/all of the time on board, 15% did so in public places at the travel destination. Perceived susceptibility to SARS at the destination predicted mask-wearing in public places and avoidance of crowded places, and perceived efficacy was a predictor for mask-wearing during flight. Approximately 16% of the respondents stated that they would delay their medical consultation for flu-like symptoms until returning to Hong Kong. Nearly 18.2% stated that they would not wear a mask in public places at the destination if they had flu-like symptoms. Education programmes, special services and effective thermal screening are required to minimize the chance of the spread of SARS by air travellers.

No abstract

Metastasis is a major cause of cancer morbidity and mortality in individuals with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), yet little is known about the underlying molecular basis. Using genetic information derived from chromosome-based comparative genomic hybridization, we have reported previously on regional chromosome 7q21-q22 gains in close association with HCC progression. In this study, we undertook cDNA microarray-based comparative genomic hybridization, to examine the 7q21-q22 region for the involved gene(s) in HCC. High-resolution mapping analysis highlighted 7 candidates, namely PFTAIRE protein kinase 1 (PFTK1), ODAG, CDK6, CAS1, PEX1, SLC25A, and PEG10, within the region. H epatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common cancer worldwide 1 and the third most common cause of cancer-related mortality. One of the reasons for this high mortality is that the tumour usually presents at a stage when curative surgery is no longer feasible because of intrahepatic or extrahepatic metastases. Although the 5-year survival of HCC patients who have undergone hepatectomy has improved in recent years, postoperative intrahepatic recurrence can still be as high as 43% by 2 years after resection, 2 presumably because of preexisting micro-metastases. 3 These observations underscore the urgent need to understand the molecular characteristics and related biological mechanisms in tumor cell dissemination.Despite extensive studies, the underlying genomic alterations in HCC remain poorly understood, 4-6 and few tumor suppressors or proto-oncogenes have been related to metastasis and recurrences. Utilizing genetic information derived from a cohort of 100 HCC tumors analyzed by chromosome-based comparative genomic hybridization (CGH), our group has previously shown several regional chromosome gains, especially over-representations