SARS - where did it come from?

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
I've been reading about this super-pnemonia that has killed dozens f folks recently in Asia and is spreading to the US and Europe. Some say it is air borne (12 monkeys flash backs) and can spread at an alarming rate. The Chinese government is trying to downplay it. Where did this mystery illness come from?



Quote:

"It is the worst medical disaster I have ever seen," Sydney Chung Sheung-chee, Dean of Medicine at the Chinese University in Hong Kong, told the South China Morning Post on Wednesday. Ten people have died in Hong Kong and 50 schools have closed. "It is a war with an unknown enemy."

quote from here



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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 30
    powerdocpowerdoc Posts: 8,123member
    According to the Pasteur institute and the Atlanta's center, the virus is a coronavirus, a very common family of virus responsible of bening infection like cold.

    However this coronavirus is a new and unknow variant responsible of severe pneumopathic disease.

    In France we have one confirmed case, a doctor who use to work in the french hospital in Vietnam (and who catch it here).



    The SARS is not a benign epidemia, without a strict control it should degenerate in a huge pendemia responsible of many deaths (more than the Iraq war). Drastic measure have to be enforced in order to stop the epidemia. I don't want to scare you, Tonton, but at your place i will not be so confident. However the inhabitants of the building where there is many cases of SARS are going to be transferred in the campaign, in order to isolate them from the town and to allow a strict disinfection of their appartements. 1500 are transferate for the moment, and some plans indicates that they are trying to find place for 6000 people.
  • Reply 2 of 30
    sammi josammi jo Posts: 4,634member
    Origins? Porton Down in the UK, or Ft. Detrick in the USA?



    They design, manufacture and experiment with viruses at these facilities, (amongst others), so they should be included in a list of possible suspects! You don't have to be paranoid or a conspiracy nut to raise that possibility.



  • Reply 3 of 30
    outsideroutsider Posts: 6,008member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by sammi jo

    Origins? Porton Down in the UK, or Ft. Detrick in the USA?



    They design, manufacture and experiment with viruses at these facilities, (amongst others), so they should be included in a list of possible suspects! You don't have to be paranoid or a conspiracy nut to raise that possibility.







    Hey maybe, but why would the outbreak be in Asia?
  • Reply 4 of 30
    mrmistermrmister Posts: 1,095member
    Please, sammi jo, entertain us with your ranting. Please.
  • Reply 5 of 30
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    Ari Fleischer has been quoted as saying the administration believes that Al Qaeda might be behind it. Apparently they don't like the Chinese either.





































    ...and before you blast me, check the date.
  • Reply 6 of 30
    crusadercrusader Posts: 1,129member
    It looks like the virus is taking a toll on the Asin econmoy too; the travel indusrty is getting slammed already, and with the (fomerly) quaentined passangers in San Jose, it looks like a ban of travel (here in the USA) to and from SARS countries is possible. The virus seems to be pretty nasty too:

    Quote:

    Autopsies revealed the virus caused parts of the lungs to hemorrhage blood, as would be the case with a hemorrhagic fever virus such as Ebola. - Newsday



    Well as far as conspericy theories go, how 'bout Deus Ex? Maybe good 'ol Bill Gates will have his Foundation come out with a cure, lol. It's alway's kind of creepy when someone brings up Ft. Dertick, just because it's so close to home (within 100 miles).
  • Reply 7 of 30
    vandewaalsvandewaals Posts: 450member
    Powerdoc is correct about the type of virus. Its basically a varient of a virus class that usually causes the common cold.



    Often, these viruses start out in bird populations. Many farmers in asia (China especially) keep chickens. In rural areas, people and farm animals live in close quarters, which gives opportunity for the virus to "jump".



    The 1919 influenza pandemic killed millions of people....and it was basically the reason that WWI ended. Both sides had so many soldiers sick that they couldn't keep fighting. More people died in that pandemic than IN WWI. And as now...its believed that the virus started out in birds. In a like manner, HIV is belived to have jumped from primates to humans. Ebola outbreaks often are traced to people eating chimpanzee meat ("bush meat") in isloted African villages.



    Thats the scary thing about these viruses....when they get into a new host species they can go from being fairly innocuous to being very dangerous. And if anything we have been overdue for a pandemic of this kind. We shall see what happens I guess.
  • Reply 8 of 30
    nijiniji Posts: 288member
    first cases of this: southern china in and around guangzhou city.



    when: first cases in china during last november of 2002.



    where: over 300 people have died between nov 2002 and january 2003 in southern china. no outside (read foreign) attention given to it. china itself did nothing to stop it, and maybe even didnt actually realize it was dealing with a new virus.



    hkg connection: first cases in HKG in late january. first major spread within HKG in february.



    current working hypothesis of health care professionals: new strain of virus. possibly a virus only heretofore found in animals. most likely either from pigs or chickens, and has successfully crossed into humans through mutation. the changeover being made possible by feeding the pigs or chickens feed that it wouldnt normally eat, such as chronic feeding of beef, something that humans eat, and the virus adapting within the animal to that type of feed.



    virus remains contagious on surfaces for up to 2 hours. can only be spread atmospherically by mucous or drops from nose becoming airborne and landing somewhere else. this means conveyance through common duct air conditioners and internal airplane air circulation systems possible, but not likely to be a highly effective means of communication of the virus. most cases to date have therefore been due to actual and close person to person contact with an infected person. also, the virus is not communicable unless there is that actual release of contagious mucous or other nasal fluid.
  • Reply 9 of 30
    kennethkenneth Posts: 832member
    This list, which gives the latest info of the case in Hong Kong



    http://www.sosick.org/
  • Reply 10 of 30
    stunnedstunned Posts: 1,096member
    About 4 people had already died from SARS in Singapore. This is scary, as about another 150 people are affected and its unsafe to stay in crowed and air-conditioned areas now..
  • Reply 11 of 30
    billybobskybillybobsky Posts: 1,914member
    actually there is no confirmed cause of the virus...



    just throwing that in...





    b
  • Reply 12 of 30
    powerdocpowerdoc Posts: 8,123member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by billybobsky

    actually there is no confirmed cause of the virus...



    just throwing that in...





    b




    Please coud you elaborate ?



    There is an another theory for the virus (other than the theory of coronarovirus ). The coexistence of a paramyxovirus with the coronarovirus. The coranovirus allow the paramyxovirus to do his dirty work (simplistic resume).



    However the theory number one is still a new variant of Coranovirus (coming from animals ? : we don't know).
  • Reply 13 of 30
    billybobskybillybobsky Posts: 1,914member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Powerdoc

    Please coud you elaborate ?



    There is an another theory for the virus (other than the theory of coronarovirus ). The coexistence of a paramyxovirus with the coronarovirus. The coranovirus allow the paramyxovirus to do his dirty work (simplistic resume).



    However the theory number one is still a new variant of Coranovirus (coming from animals ? : we don't know).




    just said confirmed... the theories mentioned are coming from several different labs. no two labs have seen the same viruses as far as i can tell. its important to know the exact identity of the virus or viri before a vaccine or treatment is developed otherwise the attempts would be blind. what the labs are seeing are the presense of the viri in the patients fluids (blood, mucous etc) but the common nature of both the flu virus and the paramyxovirus may be covering up the true cause. its important to realize that neither the US' CDC or the WHO has come out and said SARS is cause by a variant in __.



    (it kind of offends my scientific sensibilities when there are claims to causes and no confirmed evidence)



    b
  • Reply 14 of 30
    stunnedstunned Posts: 1,096member
    Fellow AI members,



    The SARS threat is very real. Quite a few people in my country are dead from it and many others infected.



    If u have symptons of high fever (>38 celcius), dry couth, lung pain or difficulties in breathing, go see the doctor immediately!
  • Reply 15 of 30
    I first thought it meant Special Administrative Region Sickness, altough it probably arrived there from the neighbouring Canton province ( and no I won't be calling it ?Gunagdong? any time soon, just as I won't ask to you talk about ?Yerushalayim?, ?Dar-al-Baydha?, ?Euskadi?, or ?Firenze?) of China, which isn't sharing some details (like how many infected, etc?) with others, as is customary with that kind of regime.



    [How I hate those stupid jingoistic name-changing destined to piss-off foreingers:

    Beijing?

    Mumbai?

    Yangon?

    Atananarivo?

    Not in your life! They're forever Peking, Bombay, Rangoon, and Ta Nana n'Arrive (and yet, I'm flexible, as I gave up on Batavia, Leopoldville, and Christiania).]
  • Reply 16 of 30
    haraldharald Posts: 2,152member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Immanuel Goldstein





    [How I hate those stupid jingoistic name-changing destined to piss-off foreingers:

    Beijing?

    Mumbai?

    Yangon?

    Atananarivo?

    Not in your life! They're forever Peking, Bombay, Rangoon, and Ta Nana n'Arrive (and yet, I'm flexible, as I gave up on Batavia, Leopoldville, and Christiania).]




    This is a joke, right? I mean, you do realise that the Malagasy HATE that gag (as in it pisses them off) and that the jingoistic name-change of Mumbai was done by the British?



    Genuinely, maybe I'm missing your first-ever stab at public irony ...
  • Reply 17 of 30
    I had forgotten this aside remark might offend some tiermondiste senesibilities.



    Quote:

    Originally posted by Harald

    This is a joke, right? I mean, you do realise that the Malagasy HATE that gag (as in it pisses them off)



    So do the inhabitants of Calembourg-en-Bresse and many other places one can think of, and they should get over it already.



    Quote:

    and that the jingoistic name-change of Mumbai was done by the British?



    Bombay was founded in the 17th century by the East India Company, the origin of the city's name is Portuguese: Bom Bahia. There was no city named Mumbai to begin with.

    But for the usual idiots of the BJP/RSS/Hindutva/whathaveyou, that just wasn't good enough.

    Funny that you agree here with this jolly bunch of far-right extremists (you do know it was one of them who killed Gandhi, right?).



    Sorry for this off-topic interlude.



    But do stay away from the virus nonetheless.

    Zay gizunt.
  • Reply 18 of 30
    groveratgroverat Posts: 10,872member
    DAMN YOU ASIA!
  • Reply 19 of 30
    powerdocpowerdoc Posts: 8,123member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by groverat

    DAMN YOU ASIA!



    God Damnit !!!

    The link was there and i do not see it. The key word is mutation : mutation of name Peking ---> Beijhing, cold type of coronavirus ---> SARS type of coronavirus.

    We should send some X-men in Asia to stop all this silly mutations
  • Reply 20 of 30
    powerdocpowerdoc Posts: 8,123member
    I have heard bad news of SARS. According to the director of the Honk Kong Pasteur's antenna the epidemia could reach 30 % of the world human population if we follow prospective studies, based upon the model of the building infested in Honk Hong.

    There is always predictions like that, and others specialist quickly make denials after this sort of claim. The sad thing, that no specialists made such denial.

    Worse, the chief of the Atlanta research, said that things could evoluate too quickly, and that we are not sure to be able to react with enough speed to this threat.



    A friend of mine who is a Pneumologia specialist, said that in case of SARS, he will fly out town. He said that there was no médication for SARS, and that when you made a radio of a patient, his lungs will be White. And a white radio, is a very bad things concerning lungs.

    I wish that they can stop quickly this epidemia. I don't want to imagine what could arrive if it continue to expand.
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