Killer Virus (SARS) Identified

ProMed ^ | 03-18-03

[Judith Anne]

I'm seeing news about cases popping up in many countries...they always say just a few that are being investigated, but something about it doesn't seem right to me...

[CathyRyan]

Between FR, the war, and sars, me too.

[Judith Anne]

So, a big pop by the end of the week, maybe?

[per loin]

I'd guess that anybody who has been to the area and has any cough or fever is being looked at as a "possible". But the story of a flight engineer being one of the afflicted in Hong Kong is very scary. The cockpit of a plane is small. Air is recirculated. The crew is in close contact for extended periods. If someone starts coughing, or feels sick, he cannot leave. And any crew members in the infectious stage could pass the bug to folks from around the world.

[Mother Abigail]

If you assume that we have a virus that has moved into a new host and appears to be able to replicate, spread and thrive within that new host. Then here's what follows..

1. Is quickly contained and burns itself out in the few infected.

2. Continues to spread, but we develop an effective regimen to fight its effects, burns out more slowly.

3. Continues to spread, but because of its viral nature we are unable to do little more than isolate the patient and protect the staff. Could be a very long summer

4. Goes pandemic, meets little resistance, called thinning the herd....

[per loin]

You mentioned that you suspected the airline employee infections to be ground based. Have you any additional info? The media do not seem very aggressive on covering this.

[Mother Abigail]

French doctor in Vietnam dies from mystery pneumonia

March 19 2003

Hanoi: A French doctor who treated the first case of the mystery respiratory illness diagnosed in Vietnam died today after contracting the virus, the French embassy said.

Jean-Paul Derosier, a 65-year-old anaesthetist, had been in a critical condition for several days at the French Hospital in Hanoi.

He had been in direct contact with a 48-year-old American who fell ill during a business trip to Hanoi and died in hospital last week in Hong Kong from the virus known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

A Vietnamese nurse who was also involved in the treatment of the American died over the weekend. A total of 54 cases of the illness have been diagnosed so far in Vietnam.

At least six deaths - two in Canada, two in Hong Kong and two in Vietnam - have now been attributed to the disease, which has been described as an atypical pneumonia or influenza-like illness.  

[Mother Abigail]

Just part of a theory that I am working on.

I believe that it is more virulent than reported. That sneezing and coughing are transmitting the virus in large crowds. Airports, buses, trains, etc..Places where tourist gather. Airline engineer might have been infected in terminal or lounge.

Just conjecture, but we have to try to get the theory to fit the data...

[Judith Anne]

Back when smoking was allowed on the airlines, outside air was used to assist ventilation in the passenger cabins...I know you were posting about cockpits, and I know nothing about the far east planes and their construction, or if smoking is allowed on any of them today...but I do recall reading somewhere that 02 levels are lower on planes today...

[Judith Anne]

Right now I'm thinking 2 and 3. A vaccine is most likely months away from development; testing, manufacture and distribution take a while, too...next winter maybe...

[per loin]

The initial WHO worldwide warning seemed early, given the number of cases at that time. Perhaps WHO knew that a flight engineer was one of the cases.

[Mother Abigail]

A second man has died in Hong Kong after being stricken by a mysterious pneumonia, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The illness is now believed to have claimed at least 11 lives in Asia and Canada.

"The man died last night," a Hospital Authority spokeswoman told AFP. "We are investigating the cause of the death," she said.
The man, whose identity was not immediately released, was among 111 people in Hong Kong with the virus, called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), according to official statistics yesterday.

He died at the Prince of Wales

[per loin]

More helpful words from our Alfred E. Newman agency in China:

19 Mar 2003 03:37 China says pneumonia outbreak under control

BEIJING, March 19 (Reuters) - China said on Wednesday the atypical pneumonia outbreak that has affected parts of the southern province of Guangdong since November has been brought "under effective control".

China had "organised medical institutions and medical specialists to give emergency treatment to patients in time, analyse the cause of the disease and take immediate measures to curb the spread of the disease", the official Xinhua news agency quoted Health Minister Zhang Wenkang as saying.

Victims had recovered and life in the area had returned to normal, the agency quoted Zhang as saying in a meeting with Henk Bekedam, the World Health Organization representative in China.

The new form of pneumonia has been blamed for 10 deaths -- mainly in Asia -- and made hundreds ill around the world.

[vetvetdoug]

Wouldn't it be wierd if the virus was a variant or mutant of the Canine Distemper Virus and the natural host was a dog? I remember about 15 years ago the virus mutated and killed a number of large cats all over the world, especially lions. If the survivors of this disease develop neurological signs I am going to vaccinate myself with CDV or measles. One can vaccinate a dog with human measles and protect it against Canine Distemper Virus since they are so closely related.

[per loin]

HONG KONG —  Public sector health workers in Hong Kong are up in arms, claiming that they have unnecessarily been exposed to danger as the price to pay for the government trying desperately to allay the public's fears over the spread of an atypical pneumonia that has claimed at least nine lives world-wide.

In the face of a possible epidemic outbreak of what has been labeled severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the Hong Kong government is advising its medical staff to take no chances, while at the same time telling its citizens and the world that there is nothing to worry about.

Angry doctors and nurses gathered on Monday at the partly-closed Prince of Wales Hospital to voice their protest against the government's handling of the situation.

The president of the Public Doctors' Association, Dr Leung Ka-lau, has described the situation in Hong Kong as "red light", without giving further details. He criticized the government for misleading the public into believing that Hong Kong was in the "yellow light" stage.

[Mother Abigail]

Well Canine Parvovirus was a completely new disease, not merely a previously unrecognized one. I believe that it is a mutant of the cat distemper virus.

But wouldn't we see the terrible diarrhea?

[Mother Abigail]

Good catch,

I expect more of the same, within a day or so we should have e-mail connections in the heart of the beast.

[per loin]

From the China Daily:

"The disease is now effectively under control and the patients have recovered gradually and are resuming their normal lives," Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said yesterday.

Kong revealed that two officials of the World Health Organization (WHO) and a group of experts visited China in late February and early March to investigate the SARS cases in Guangdong Province.

[per loin]

From the Straits Times:

Despite warnings on Monday by SIA and Cathay Pacific that people with flu-like symptoms may not be allowed to check in, nobody was turned away from the counters at Changi airport yesterday.

Mr Martin Freibergs, 26, a purchaser from Sweden, had stopped over in Hongkong for three days before coming to Singapore. He was going back to Hongkong on Cathay Pacific before returning to Sweden. He had a very hoarse voice, a sore throat, and was coughing.

'You hear my voice? I am worried. I will go to a doctor for an examination once I get back to Sweden,' he said.

But he added that he hadn't considering cancelling his trip.

Neither did the counter staff stop him from checking in or ask any questions.

Cathay Pacific Airways had copies of the WHO travel advisory on its counters for passengers to pick up if they wanted to.

[Justa]

"Mr Martin Freibergs, 26, a purchaser from Sweden, had stopped over in Hongkong for three days before coming to Singapore. He was going back to Hongkong on Cathay Pacific before returning to Sweden. He had a very hoarse voice, a sore throat, and was coughing."

In a bygone era he would be travelling salesman plying pots and pans or some such. Reminds me of accounts from 13th and 14th centuries regarding the spread of the Plague. Also neatly complements the old movies' depiction of Europeans' age old fear of travellers and new visitors.

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