SARS Death Rate Increases to 16% - 25% and the Mutating Virus Attacks Many Vital Organs

NewsPundit.net ^ | 4/24/2003 | Douglas Oliver

[Domestic Church]

"SARS is an interesting story, not only because of the very real panic we see in Asia, but because it is a new disease."

Not to mention the North Korea saber rattling threads just prior to the war and the comments expecting China to pop as soon as war started. And the possibility of the Indian subcontinent having some level of immunity has many intrigued.

Even beyond the molecular realm, this is frontline news. For those in the bio/med ballpark it is riveting.

[Domestic Church]

"It could be that this particular virus has an enzyme that recognizes and incorporates other viral nucleic acid and incorporates the alien viral nucleic acid with it's own."

satellite nucleic acids....someone else on FR at the very begining of this outbreak brought that possibility up.

[realpatriot71]

It would be a great survival mechanism, especially for this type of intracellular parasite. It's complete speculation fo course, but it could explain why the virus seems to be mutating so fast, and how some people with SARS in Canada don't seems to have a detectable level of (original) virus

[El Gato]

If the death rate is really so high, why hasn't anyone died in the US?

What's the incubation period?

[Domestic Church]

The 40% in Canada that didn't have the coronavirus seemed to match up with another 40%(still sick & recovering?) in per loin's data. It is odd that only Winnipeg is coming up with such a high percentage (or has any other institution come up with similar ongoing discrepancy?)

[realpatriot71]

It is odd that only Winnipeg is coming up with such a high percentage

Perhaps it is a completely different bug, not SARS, but presents very similar manner. It's highly unlikely that two similar bugs, with similar pathologies break out at nearly the same time in different parts of the world, but it isn't an complete impossibility.

Ebola broke out in africa as well about this same time, but looks to be "winding down"

[Nov3]

The SARS threads are great for laughs.

I pray you get the last laugh

[harpseal]

What exactly are you thinking anyway?

I am thinking SARS could be a very serious health peoblem for a very large number of people. If say a billion people get SARS over the next couple years then at a 5% mortality rate we are talking in the neighborhood of 50,000,000 deaths. If we are talking a 16% mortality rate then we are talking about 160,000,000 dead over a two year period. I do not know if it will develop into that big a pandemic but it is a concern. However given the disease I do not see a whole lot that can be done to avoid this happening.

[nonliberal]

I am wondering what, exactly, the Chinese bioterror team was working on and if someone bogarted a test tube.

[oldcomputerguy]

Amen.