SARS - scary stuff

[K.I.L.E.R]

Airborn HIV virus? You guys are truly scary, despite being educated.

 

[PC-Engine]

Weren't the first instances traced to Vietnam tho' Sabastian?

Even if it was, what prevents someone from North Korea smuggling or shipping some biological sample to Vietnam? Drugs have and are smuggled in/out of every country on the planet.

What prevents N Korea smuggling the virii straight to the US then?

I think a reality check is in order.. try one of Russ' links.

The point is the possibility is there ie drugs. Whether it's true or not is another matter. BTW there have been cases in CA

Also directly smuggling a sample to the US from NK would be a very difficult task considering current events and would be easily traced if found. Indirect infection from travelers would be a smarter choice.

 

[Silent_One]

New way virus is spreading?
Bug is spread by BUGS!!!

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Living/reuters20030408_99.html

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Doctors still haven't pinned down exactly how a deadly flu-like virus is spreading and more cases are pointing to possible new ways it is using to pass from one victim to another.

A top Hong Kong health official said on Tuesday cockroaches might have spread the virus that causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in an apartment complex in the city, leading to nearly 300 infections in a matter of days.

If proved true, it would represent an alarming development in the swiftly spreading epidemic in Hong Kong, a city of nearly seven million people filled with densely populated apartment buildings.

Health officials are also looking at the possibility that SARS can be spread by a latter-day version of Typhoid Mary, a cook in early 20th century America who spread typhoid fever without showing symptoms herself.

 

[RussSchultz]

Health officials are also looking at the possibility that SARS can be spread by a latter-day version of Typhoid Mary, a cook in early 20th century America who spread typhoid fever without showing symptoms herself.

HA! Its sounding more and more like captain trips every day.

 

[Silent_One]

O.K. latest update-
http://www.who.int/en/

WHO extends SARS-related travel advice
23 April 2003 -- WHO is now recommending that persons planning to travel to Beijing and Shanxi Province, China, and to Toronto, Canada consider postponing all but essential travel to these destinations.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2971841.stm

China seals off major Beijing hospital
In Beijing, the authorities have sealed off the 1,200-bed People's Hospital of Peking University because of multiple Sars infections. Staff and patients cannot leave and no-one is allowed to enter.

A two-week closure of all public schools in Beijing was ordered on Wednesday, affecting more than 1.7 million children.

A BBC correspondent says there is a sense of spreading alarm in the Chinese capital, with panic buying of rice and salt.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2971843.stm

The deadly Sars virus and the aftermath of the war in Iraq are likely to knock almost one-sixth off economic growth in Asia this year, the World Bank has warned.

The mortality rate has been increasing from about 4%....
Currently.....
Total cases = 4,288
Total deaths = 252
% mortality rate = 5.88%
While to date there have been relatively low number of cases worldwide the mortality rate are alarming. During the 1918 outbreak of influenza the mortality rate were about the same and that outbreak resulted in 18 million deaths. SARS sees to be slowly gaining ground. I hope SARS is over quickly because if not.......

 

[BoardBonobo]

The latest is that the mortality rate could reach as high as 10%.

That's quite scary, the big influenza epidemic had a mortality rate of 3.4% and that killed ~18 million people. And it's a corona virus, they have a huge mutation rate so even if a vaccine is produced it has to reach all the people very quickly to be effective.

And since the usual way this works is that only the wealthy can afford the medication, the virus has a whole lot of people to mutate in who can't afford the medication. If anybody is infected then everybody is at risk.

 

[RussSchultz]

Gaea is angry.

 

[BoardBonobo]

Oh if lovelock were alive today

 

[John Reynolds]

Gaea is angry.

That's really not very funny. Bad, Russ, bad.

 

[MrsSkywalker]

Anyone have any thoughts as to why no one in the US has died from it yet? I have been keeping close tabs on the Canadian outbreaks (we're just about 100 little miles from Quebec...*gulp*) and though people have died in Canada, it seems odd that no one in the US has died... do you think it's b/c of the way we handle colds/flu in general? Or perhaps something in one of our vaccines??

Edit: Just on my local news: "If you have SARS, report it to your doctor imediately." Um....yeah.

 

[Mariner]

Does anyone else not think that there has been a bit too much scaremongering by the media about this disease? From what we know, it is difficult to catch this illness - certainly, the number of people infected so far indicates that it is far less virulent than a common influenza.

The disease has been around for several months, yet there are still less than 5,000 cases confirmed out of the world population of 6 billion! How many people have died from influenza during this period, I wonder or even other relatively scarce diseases such as meningitis?

I'll agree that there is cause for concern in the far east where most of the cases are occurring, but every news report here in the UK seems to mention the disease and there have only been 6 cases in this country, all of whom have survived (I believe). Why the media-induced 'panic'?

 

[BoardBonobo]

That's probably because there are enough life support machines around to cope with the current number of infections. The real panic will set in if the infection rate rises above the number of units available. Then people will start dying in large numbers.

It's the end of the world as we know it and not with a bang but more of a snuffle and tissue shortage.

Good job I'm flying to Portugal on Saturday...

 

[pax]

Actually good its only the corona virus thats involved. The high mutation rate will likely turn it into a harmless version soon enough... Influenza plague was over in 3 months ... lets just hope this is contained long enough for the mutation to kick in... or the vaccine for the current form the virus to be made...

Vaccine should be available in a few months...

 

[BoardBonobo]

But coronaviruses tend to change from one bad variety to a worse one e.g. from lung to gut to liver to... And in most cases the mutated varieties replicate faster and spread faster, also the incubation period can change dramatically with each new strain. Could be ten days for one, twenty days for another, or even ten hours. That makes it incredibly hard to track and even harder to identify.

 

[pax]

Corona has been with us a long time... I dont want to be overly optimistic but lets see how far the contagion goes and how lethal it really is. I dont think we can gauge real death rates until (hopefully not) much larger numbers are involved.

Most pneumonias arent investigated as they mostly affect the very young or old or sickly. Thats why so many docs prescribe anti biotics for what are 90% of the time viral pneumonias. They dont know for sure it isnt bacterial so they prescribe just in case for legal reasons.

I see many die of pneumonia every year at the chronic care facility I work at. Its a leading cause of death so Im waiting to see more detailed statistics as to how bad this thing is before I start to get worried.