FAQ on SARS The Mystery Virus: A Guide to Origins, Symptoms and Precautions You Can Take

Washinton Post ^ | April 23, 2003; 1:37 PM | By Rob Stein

[Pro-Bush]

Health officials around the world are grappling with a rapidly spreading epidemic of a severe respiratory ailment known as SARS. Here's a quick look at who's at risk and other basic questions about the disease.

Q. What is SARS?

A. SARS stands for severe acute respiratory syndrome. It's a new disease that doctors still don't know much about.

Q. What are the symptoms of SARS?

A. They are a lot like pneumonia or the flu. People get a very high fever -- at least 100.4 degrees. They also usually have shortness of breath or other problems breathing and a dry cough. Some people get other symptoms, including a headache, stiff or achy muscles, a loss of appetite, fatigue, a rash and diarrhea.

Q. How do you get SARS?

A. It seems that you have to have very close contact with someone who has it. Almost all the people who have gotten SARS have either been hospital workers who cared for sick people or members of a victim's family. Doctors believe that it is spread by tiny droplets that get airborne when someone sneezes or coughs, or by contact with other bodily fluids such as blood. The people who have gotten SARS outside of Asia have all either recently traveled to Asian countries where it is spreading or had close contact with someone who recently returned from there.

[riri]

Both of these statements are nonsense.

Panic control.

[Pro-Bush]

later in the summer, we are flying to Canada...... but not Toronto. Not sure how all this is going to pan out at this point.

I just read that if things get worse authorities would ban air travel to Canada.

At minimum, fining or throwing quarantine breakers in jail would send a comforting message to the world, as would banning flights between Canada and China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Here is the article