SARS virus proves dangerously durable

CanWest News Service - The Edmonton Journal - canada.com ^ | , April 20, 2003 | David Rider, With files from Rick Pedersen

[aristeides]

It's looking increasingly odd how there has been so little spread of the disease in this country.

[CathyRyan]

Could this be part of a mutation?

[Judith Anne]

No credible updates on the number of deaths worldwide out of the CDC or WHO, so why should we believe the number of US cases?

The CDC reporting is starting to look like China's...inaccurate, self-serving, artificially low figures. The CDC has less and less credibility...

As heavily into the politics of HIV as the CDC is, I wonder if they don't want to publicize the isolation tactics necessary to stop the spread of killer viruses for fear that some people will revive the quarantine AIDS argument.

That's more tinfoil hatting than I usually allow myself, but I'm getting cranky.

Time to go have brunch and play with the grandkiddies. See ya'll later.

[Dog Gone]

But where SARS can survive on a door knob for 24 hours, a common cold virus can only survive for two to four hours

This does not bode well.

[CathyRyan]

The numbers in the US are starting to look squirrely. I had chauked it up to thank g*d and good luck but I bet you are right.

[uncbob]

Bush better take some action on travel restrictions etc or comes 2004 it won't be the economy but the " IT'S THE SARS STUPID"

[ET(end tyranny)]

"I have no optimism that we can contain it in developing areas of the world like mainland China so we will continue to import cases and we're going to have to remain absolutely vigilant."

[riri]

comes 2004 it won't be the economy

If the train doesn't make a stop at the next station there won't be an economy in 2004!

[per loin]

The US was originally lumping suspect and probable cases together. Oddly when they changed, and drop their count into the thirties, WHO continued to list the higher figure. Does WHO know something?

[aristeides]

Sars: More than one cause? .

[blam]

(Hope you don't mind if I post the article)

Sars: More than one cause?

20/04/2003 18:00 - (SA)

Montreal - The corona virus identified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as giving rise to severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), may not be the only cause of the disease, Canadian heath officials said on Sunday.

"We have only identified the corona virus in 50% of the people being treated for Sars," health ministry spokesperson Paul Gully told the Sunday edition of the Montreal newspaper La Presse.

"We have a slightly less optimistic vision than the WHO, and it is still too early to talk of a medicine or a vaccine which might slow the spread of Sars," said Gully, who is also a medical doctor.

Gully's comments were based on the analysis by a Winnipeg microbiology laboratory of samples taken from Canadian Sars sufferers, La Presse said.

Outside Asia, where Sars originated, Canada has been the country worst affected by the atypical and deadly strain of pneumonia.

On Wednesday, the WHO announced a corona virus previously known in animals but never observed in humans to be the cause of Sars.

Corona viruses also cause the common cold.

[CathyRyan]

Could that be the difference in virulence?

[CathyRyan]

They did the Koch's postulate on the corona virus. Who the heck nows anything about this disease at this point.

[aristeides]

Of course I don't mind. Thanks for posting it.

[aristeides]

I don't know how you establish that all people suffering from a new disease are infected with the same organism unless and until you first establish there is only one disease. How do you exclude the possiblity that there are two or more diseases?

[aristeides]

Interesting explanations of the super-spreaders in this article: City Of Fear, Hope: Hong Kong keeps a brave face as SARS crisis grows.

[SauronOfMordor]

Once it beecomes broad public knowledge that the SARS virus can last over 24 hours on inanimate surfaces, Chinese imports into the US are going to take a hit.

Sounds like a good time to sell WalMart stock

[Dog Gone]

I don't think they're suggesting that the virus could survive two months on a ship.

[SauronOfMordor]

The numbers in the US are starting to look squirrely. I had chauked it up to thank g*d and good luck but I bet you are right.

Even when you only go by the new "probable" criteria, the deaths numbers are out of whack compared to Canada. Are we to believe that Canada's med system sucks so badly compared to us (perhaps so, but our numbers still look suspicious)