SARS Mystery Deepens (Virus details)

Newsday ^ | April 1, 2003 | Laurie Garrett

[Djarum]

BTTT

[Cold Heat]

...unpublished data indicate the virus "looks more like an animal coronavirus than a human one, but we don't know what animal yet.”

Quack!

[bonesmccoy]

Great posting... if the scientific observations are true, one wonders if this is a genetically engineered virus from North Korea.

If anyone has contact with NIH/CDC people, please investigate the following:
1. Has the coronavirus isolated been sequenced or had a rough genetic analysis done?
2. Comparison of genetic analysis to Hantavirus would be useful.

[ShootMeIfHillaryRuns]

Just when I was about to quit smoking! Great another excuse. Oh the irony, I am going to smoke to live...

[honway]

Remember Professor Wiley?

It was reported he fell off a Memphis bridge and died in the Missisippi River. Interesting. This SARS bug would have been in his area of expertise.

http://www.news.harvard.edu/specials/2001/wiley/wileybio.html

Biography of Professor Don C. Wiley
December 21, 2001
Don C. Wiley was the John L. Loeb Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at Harvard University's Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

Wiley's research, which made him one of the most influential biologists of his generation, focused on the structure of viruses and proteins in the human immune system. Specifically, his work sought to understand the molecular mechanisms that enable viruses to infect cells and to discover how cells respond to external challenges by presenting antigens and mobilizing defensive cells.

In studying the structure of viruses such as Influenza, AIDS , Ebola, and herpes simplex, he examined the ways in which viruses bind to cell surfaces and enter cells and the ways in which viruses has evolved to infect different organisms and to escape the immune response of their hosts. By understanding these processes, Wiley sought to find new ways to combat these viruses.

[honway]

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/topstory/7949/7949notw5.html

Harvard Biochemist Don C. Wiley Disappears In Memphis

Decc 3, 2001

[EternalHope]

I snipped that part because this source will not let us copy an entire article.

I agree, the patient profile was surprising. I just did not have enough space to include it all.

[this_ol_patriot]

I figured as much, that is an unusual presentation of a respiratory condition though.

[Bernard Marx]

one wonders if this is a genetically engineered virus from North Korea

Why blame North Korea? It's from China, after all. Which country can stand to lose the most population and win in its sphere of influence? North Korea isn't even in that game. Still, it's probably a natural mutation.

[WellsFargo94]

The obvious concern is an accidental release from some germ-warfare experiment...

Accident???

[RnMomof7]

Wash you hands, often, especially after having touched things in public. Keep your hands away from your face unless you wash them first.

Excellent advise..door knobs and handles ...You can buy clean wipes at the drug store and carry them in a bag.

One of the "nursing tricks" I use is after you wash your hands in a public washroom use the towel to turn off the water knob and then use it to open the door to get out.

If you do not you just put all the germs you washed off your hands back on..90% of people do not wash their hand after using the toilet..all those germs are on door push plates and knobs when you leave the restroom..

[Neuromancer]

Possible SARS Patient in Isolation in Mpuma
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South African Press Association (Johannesburg)
April 1, 2003
Posted to the web April 1, 2003
Nelspruit

A man is in isolation in the Nelspruit Medi-Clinic with symptoms of malaria or possibly the feared Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

The man, who looked to be in his 40s, was transported from Maputo, Mozambique, by ambulance to the clinic on Monday night, clinic spokeswoman Robyn Freathy said on Tuesday.

He had recently travelled to Hong Kong. She said the man could also be a malaria patient.

"After receiving a call yesterday from the Medical Director of SOS International requesting permission to receive a patient who was seen by a doctor in Maputo with possible symptoms of SARS, Nelspruit Medi-Clinic has taken all necessary precautionary measures in its isolation and hospitalisation process of the patient," Freathy said in a statement.

The man would remain in isolation until the outcome of tests already conducted was known.

"In the interim, the admission of this isolated patient has been reported by Nelspruit Medi-Clinic to the Department of Health."

[nopardons]

TINFOIL covered, are you ?

[so_real]

<grin> TINFOIL covered, are you ?

<tinfoil>
And, now I understand why the Chinese are so anxious to colonize the moon! The big-wigs gotta get off the planet until the viral cleansing runs its course!
</tinfoil>

[nopardons]

ROTFLOL !

[The Great Satan]

Is it normal for a newly discovered virus to be this different from its closest cousins?

Don't know. The SARS thing is pretty disturbing, but I think it's almost certainly natural.

[rwfromkansas]

I am sicker than a dog right now, but so far I have not had signs of SARS; the doc thinks I have a sinus infection, which is almost always what I get when sick so I bet he is right. I have had an unusual instance this time in which I had a fever for 2 days (I did not check today), yesterday above 100. It has not reached 104 or even 101 to my knowledge though.

This SARS has my mom and I freaked out though.

I need to wash my hands a lot more...it is pathetic how little I do.

I have a hard time believing this is Chinese warfare since it is going after oriental folks. But, perhaps it is; they are cunning and devious.

[Jim Noble]

It has not been completely sequenced.

I think we can still stop it with detentions at Ports of Entry, plus robust isolation of US cases and quarantine of exposees-but we must move fast.

[Calpernia]

>>>>I hope this isn't the case, that it's just something from the rural animal-human microbe brewery that naturally exists in Guangdong farming...

I agree! If this is the case, then we have a great chance with counter treatment and prevention.

[honway]

http://education.guardian.co.uk/obituary/story/0,12212,750145,00.html

Vladimir Pasechnik
Defector who alerted the west to the danger of Soviet biological weapons production
Pearce Wright
Wednesday November 28, 2001

After a Biopreparat research unit in Obelensk developed a more deadly strain of pneumonic plague in 1985, Pasechnik's laboratory, the Institute of Especially Pure Biopreparations, was asked to refine the process for weapons production. By 1987, the Soviets had the capacity to make 200kg of super plagues every week, enough to kill 500,000 people