Posted on 04/26/2003 12:16:34 PM PDT by Jean S
The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that everyone infected with SARS and all persons they have come into contact with must be found in order to contain the epidemic.
"We cannot afford to miss a single person," WHO regional director Shigeru Omi told a meeting of East Asian health ministers and international experts on the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) crisis.
The meeting Saturday in Malaysia's capital is a prelude to an emergency regional summit Tuesday in Bangkok aimed at forging a united front against the disease which has left close to 280 dead out of more than 4,800 cases worldwide, mostly in East Asia.
"We are at a crossroads. What we decide today and at the heads of state meeting on Tuesday will determine the future course of this outbreak," Omi said.
"We must be absolutely relentless in our search for every possible SARS case. We must use every weapon at our disposal. The world is watching us."
The disease erupted in southern China in November but was recognised as a major health threat only last month.
In the six weeks since the WHO issued a global health alert on March 12, the disease has caused widespread panic and economic disruption in East Asia and severely affected countries as far as Canada.
SARS-hit countries are now quarantining people who have come into contact with patients and carriers in a frantic attempt to catch up with the spread of the disease.
Omi noted that although the number of SARS cases and deaths was not large in comparison with those caused by some other diseases, the epidemic posed an "unprecedented" threat.
It had three special characteristics, he said.
"First, this virus has already demonstrated its explosive power to cause sudden outbreaks in a large number of countries," he said.
The second characteristic is the particularly severe impact on health workers, who constitute the largest group of cases.
"This is a major concern since this means that our health systems are under threat, undermining our ability to fight the outbreak," he said.
Thirdly, there was the urgency to track down all SARS cases.
"Although this is a public health problem that affects large groups of people, we have to reach each and every contact and suspected case if we are to stop the outbreak from spreading," Omi said.
Omi said there had been many encouraging developments in the six weeks since the WHO issued its global alert.
"However, despite our significant achievements, the epidemic is spreading to more countries every week and countries with SARS cases are experiencing great difficulty in containing the epidemic," he said.
China acknowledged at the meeting that the SARS outbreak had become a global disaster and vowed solidarity with other countries against the epidemic.
After China's presentation, Omi and other participants cited China's greater transparency on SARS.
He told AFP that "nothing is perfect in this world but what I can say to you is that China is becoming more and more open now, and more and more cooperative with the WHO and the international community."
"I'm sure they are serious," he said.
Won't be holding m'breath for any cures to pop up right quick.
Keeeeeerrrrrrreeeeeect.
But it is not too late for the out of work HIV hunters to start squeezing big time bucks out of the system. Just watch your congresscritter start pouring money on this made up problem and you will see what I mean. If it ever becomes a true epidemic (I predict it won't) then it will go the way of all epidemics. It will rise, it will peak, it will disappear and it will do it in fairly short order. Typically a few weeks. If this one hangs on longer than a few weeks it will be because the WHO has put it on life support. As you noted, the WHO needs a SARS every once in a while to justify it's existence.
Watch for the WHO, CDC and NIH danger signs:
1. It is mutating.
2. Some people are immune.
3. It is dormant in your system but can attack at any time.
4. You may have the virus but show no symptoms (ever).
5. We need to medicate you even though you have no systems.
6. Our latest, untested HIV or cancer drug is recommended for your symptom-free body.
7. Miniscule quantities of the SARS causing virus are actually found in the victims.
8. There is no need to provide scientific evidence that the coronavirus (or whatever) is the cause of SARS because everyone knows it is.
9. We've identified a few more conditions (like the common cold) that are caused by the SARS virus.
10. We can't explain why some people have all of the symptoms and actually die but have not a singe SARS causing virus in their body.
11. We need $50,000,000 to study the problem and find a cure. Hopefully one that doesn't kill more people than it saves.
Still a SARS skeptic - InterceptPoint
5. We need to medicate you even though you have no symptoms.
I'm sure you're right.
I'm not skeptical about the inevitability of an epidemic that will wipe out large numbers of people world-wide. That will surely happen. But I remain skeptical of this one (SARS) being that killer. It just doesn't pass the smell test for me. A real epidemic ramps up to peak pretty fast and then just dies off of it own accord. I predict we will see nothing like this with SARS. Let's look back in 6 months and see what we see. I'm betting SARS will still be with us but will not have followed or be following the classic peaking that true epidemics exhibit. This will be explained away by the CDC, NIH and WHO as a result of their quick action. That will be nonsense. The other news will be that we will funding SARS research and we will still be talking about it.
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