4,000 Quarantined in Beijing as Suspected SARS Cases Climb

New York Times ^ | 4/25/2003 | Erik Eckolm

[Judith Anne]

In my opinion, the SARS infection rate will go down quite a bit this summer.

Then, in the fall and winter, in the normal flu season, it will re-emerge as influenza does every year.

The 1918 influenza epidemic, in which 20 million Americans were infected and over 850,000 died IN A SINGLE YEAR, had a similar pattern. It affected a few people in the spring of the year, came back like a hurricane in the fall and winter.

You could look it up.

[Judith Anne]

P. S. the 1918 flu had its origin in China also, if I remember correctly.

[_Jim]

the 1918 flu had its origin in China

Stanford.edu says:

The origins of this influenza variant is not precisely known. It is thought to have originated in China in a rare genetic shift of the influenza virus.

Note: There are *not* definitive on this ...

[_Jim]

There = They

[TaxRelief]

Wow! You remember 1918?

[Judith Anne]

If I remember the facts that I've read elsewhere correctly. Do I really have to say all that? You require it? ;-D

[_Jim]

You require it?

Yes, after all, this *is* FR. Most knowledgeable, best informed board on the 'net ...

[Judith Anne]

Why, thank you for that clarification, _Jim. Unfortunately, at Stanford.edu, the subject and predicate do not agree. "The origins....is not precisely known"? Never make the predicate agree with an object in a prepositional phrase. It's tacky. Tell them for me, okay?

[_Jim]

Tell them for me, okay?

"In the normal course of business" or should I make it a priority - for you and you alone?

[Judith Anne]

Flirt.

[Domestic Church]

"Does anyone remember the CDC telling us that Bob Stevens, the first person diagnosed with anthrax, contracted the disease from drinking tainted water from a stream in North Carolina? I remember vividly."

Thanks for the memories,lol...yes, I do recall that farce.

[Domestic Church]

"Time for the U.N. to pass an anti-SARS resolution. That'll fix it."

Better yet let's send Koffi and Blixi and friends up to Toronto...they can look for all sorts of stuff for a nice long time.

[aristeides]

Beijing residents express anger at SARS foul-ups.

[aristeides]

Beijing's 'hell of forced isolation' : WHO says compulsory quarantine is 'victimising' thousands .

[Domestic Church]

I think you are calling it correctly, the #s will dip this summer only to blow up in the fall. We still might be able to keep the lid on it if someone can get Chretien to wise up and as long as the borders are closed and secure.

[_Jim]

Flirt.

I would make that same offer to anybody - I am an equal opportunity antagonist ...

[per loin]

1998/99 had two types that season. 8% mortality rate.

Utter nonsense. Stop and think for a moment what an 8% death rate would be for the flu, which hits 27 to 54 million American victims per year.

[aristeides]

SARS crisis cripples Beijing .

[aristeides]

From that last link:

The grim news out of China was tempered slightly by news researchers in the US believe a drug to combat SARS could be available within months. Early trials at the US National Institutes of Health suggest the therapy is highly effective at killing the corona virus thought to cause SARS.

If the full trial results, expected in two weeks, confirm the findings, then the drug could be given to patients within months.

[aristeides]

Roadblocks now in Shanghai as well as Peking. Canadian PM to Stay in Toronto to Show No Danger From SARS:

In Beijing and Shanghai Friday, Chinese officials set up roadblocks to check people for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. The checks were part of exceptional measures government officials are taking to halt the spread of the disease.

A third Beijing hospital was sealed off and officials said nearly five thousand people suspected of having SARS were being quarantined in their homes or in hospitals.

Across the water in Taiwan, officials announced a temporary ban on issuing visas to would-be travelers from Hong Kong and parts of mainland China, including Beijing.

Singapore's parliament was considering a plan to grant the Health Ministry new powers to jail those who break SARS quarantine and to seize company documents to track down employees who violate isolation orders.