Posted on 04/22/2003 12:40:08 PM PDT by per loin
SARS: India on red alert |
HT Correspondent New Delhi, April 22 |
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A red alert has been announced across the country to deal with the spread of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). All state health ministers and secretaries will meet on Thursday to lay out a plan of action. In Delhi on Tuesday, a 29-year-old woman who arrived from Guangdong Province in China was admitted at the infectious diseases hospital. Doctors say her case seems to fit the clinical definition of SARS, but they are awaiting test results. Two other cases — a man each in Jaipur and Nashik, both back from the US — are in hospital with SARS-like symptoms, but Director General Health Services (DGHS) Dr SP Aggarwal said they seemed unlikely to be SARS-afflicted. Responding to members' queries on SARS in the Lok Sabha during zero hour, Health Minister Sushma Swaraj said there was no need for panic. "We are fully geared to meet the challenge," she said. "There is no negligence, there is no apathy, I assure you," she said as MPs alleged that airports were ill-equipped to deal with the situation. Swaraj, who will head the meeting on Thursday, told members the World Health Organization had appreciated India's efficient handling of the situation. She also said Indian doctors had proved they were capable of identifying and treating SARS cases without external help. Though she ruled out cancellation of all international flights as it was unfeasible, the health minister assured the House there was a fool-proof mechanism at airports for screening overseas passengers. Suspect cases were quarantined and allowed to go only after urine, blood, sputum and nasal discharge samples had tested negative. Swaraj also said a central control room in her ministry headed by the DGHS was keeping a watch on developments. Health counters manned by doctors have been set up at 12 international and nine customs airports. Swaraj also refuted the Opposition's claim that the government was concealing SARS cases. "We are hiding nothing and we update the media every day so that nothing is left to assumption," she said. In Pune, doctors have quarantined 25 guests and the priest who were at the wedding of Julie D’Silva, (who tested positive for SARS on Monday along with her brother and mother). ************************
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That has crossed my mind.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993637
SARS virus is mutating, fear doctors
"...The much higher rate of diarrhoea in Amoy Garden cases supports the idea of an altered tissue preference, meaning a viral strain that can attack the gut as well as the lungs..."
"...This switch mirrors effects seen in several animal coronaviruses. A bovine gut coronavirus, with some genetic sequences similar to the SARS virus, can also cause severe pneumonia in cattle. And in the 1980s, a pig gut coronavirus suddenly mutated into a respiratory infection in pigs..."
"...These switches involved mutations in the viral genes coding for the spike proteins, which form the protruding halo that gives coronaviruses their name. Luis Enjuanes and colleagues at Spain's National Centre for Biotechnology in Madrid have switched the pig virus from a mild respiratory infection to a virulent gut infection solely by changing the spike protein gene. Ominously, the gut form replicated much faster..."
Cows and pigs, a major basis of rural industry...
"...Science journals are reporting that some parts of the virus code are similar to an Avian (bird) bronchitis virus..."
Sars: A test of limits to medical expertise
Perhaps investigators should innoculate test animals other than monkeys to see the effect...
Will we have electricity?
Only half joking.
I 'laid-in' some additional supplies this morning.
Suspected SARS patient hospitalised Nashik, Apr 22 (UNI) A computer engineer employed with a Bangalore-based firm has been hospitalised here with suspected symptoms of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Girish Kishanchand (23) resident at Motwani Road here was admitted in the Nashik Civil Hospital last night, civil surgeon Dr M D Patil told UNI today. Kishanchand has been staying here for the last two months and was to return to Bangalore soon. He was suffering from cold and fever for the last two to three days and was initially admitted in the Jairam Hospital here. The doctors suspected that he had symptoms of SARS and intimated the civil surgeon. He was then shifted to the civil hospital. The civil surgeon Dr Patil assisted by Dr Ramesh Korgaonkar have diagnosed symptoms of pneumonia. He has been put through an X-ray and blood samples would be sent today to the National Institute of Virology, Pune. The blood test results should come in after 48 hours, Dr Patil said. The patient had sound sleep last night, he added. The civil hospital and other hospitals have received a notice from the health department directing them to be prepared to admit SARS cases and take all precautions to protect other patients undergoing treatment for a variety of ailments. All the staff in hospitals have been advised to don masks as a precaution. |
Because in 20 minutes when I venture out of my house, no one will seem to have a care in the world.
But, get this---she is a nurse.
Re your #20. Thanks for the link.
What it seems to be saying is there are a number of tests that may be given but their reliability are open to question and they do not give a complete or even relatively foolproof picture. The tests are changing constantly not only because the virus seem to be mutating, but also newer and more definitive tests are evolving. Plus, costs of testing can be a factor in testing suspect cases.
In other words, diagnosis is still a crapshoot.
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