Posted on 05/22/2003 3:04:50 PM PDT by ex-Texan
SARS Virus Baffles Experts: It Remains "Powerful Over Time"
On May 22nd ABC reported that SARS remains powerful over time unlike more common forms of the flu virus. It is just as powerful in victims far down the "chain" as it was in the very first patient exposed to the virus. Thus far, doctors have tracked the virus through 15 levels of victims in the chain.
This new information shocked and baffled medical experts with the World Heath Organization this morning. Quoting briefly from the report:
SARS, however, does not appear to be weakening. WHO experts are still trying to determine the maximum number of people who have become infected in a single chain. * * *
"With an incubation period of about 10 days, that would be three chinks a month in the chain, so that's how we come up with the 15," he said. "The hypothesis still remains that this all came from one person, so it has passed through many, many people on it's way out through the world."
SARS was first reported five months ago in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong and scientists have traced some infections today back to one original case in the province.
More than 8,000 people have been infected worldwide, with a death toll of 684. In recent weeks, the island of Taiwan has been hardest-hit, with 20,000 people in quarantine and health experts talking about the need for more quarantine space.
In breaking news reports from Taiwan on May 22nd it was learned that there were 65 new cases of SARS reported in a single day on the island. The most recent report came from Channel News Asia.com and also shocked medical experts around the world. Many had been assuming that the virus had been contained in Taiwan and might soon be brought under containment by quarantine efforts.
NewsPundit Comment:
I expect there will be new rumors circulating on the Internet in the next few days about SARS being a man-made virus. It does not appear to act like any other virus known to medical science. The admitted fatality rate for the virus has climbed from early estimates of less than 2% to the latest figures showing 15% to 20%. In the meantime, hospital staffs are being decimated by the disease and many treatment facilities have closed their doors to new patients.
(Excerpt) Read more at newspundit.net ...
Meanwhile ... how many of you people have standing water on your property - just ripe for breeding West Nile-laden mosquitoes ...
I give up. SARS wins. Let's just roll over and die.
Congratulations.
You've finally achieved escape velocity on this subject and left the earth ...
SARS, however, does not appear to be weakening. WHO experts are still trying to determine the maximum number of people who have become infected in a single chain.
WHAT kind of succcess (OR FAILURE) have they had in Hong Kong in tackling SARS?
Is this what you were looking for? :-D
I don't know if that site http://hk.geocities.com/phgod/home.html 'blocks' images not pulled as part of a web page ...
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