Conspiracy Alert! SARS

[Butch103]

You are right ,sorry about the number facts. My wife told me as she was coming off midnights (she is an RN) after they were given the complete lowdwon, and in my sleepy mind I was sure she said a 1000 died. I stand corrected thank you.

 

[Cherry]

54 folks lost now. A WHO Researcher died, the guy who first ID'ed it. Toronto has over 70 Docs in Quarantine as a result of SARS.

Cherry

 

[Jester]

How does this compare with the "Hong Kong Flu" that was running around several years ago. If I recall correctly, that killed quite a few people as well.

 

[Rooster1]

GearHead once bubbled...
I'm not so sure you're thinking of the same thing, Rooster. Did the masks look like this?
Full Face Masks
I'd feel pretty germ proof in one of these units.

LOL no not those

 

[pufferfish]

hoover once bubbled...
How does this compare with the "Hong Kong Flu" that was running around several years ago. If I recall correctly, that killed quite a few people as well.

That flu in 1997 was called the Avian Flu as it was a bird flu that jumped to humans and had about a 30% mortality rate. The only saving grace with that flu was it didn't seem to be transmissible from human to human. You had to get it from a chicken or duck directly. That is why they killed the entire chicken and duck population in Hong Kong which ended any further cases. As a result of that drastic move only six people died.

That flu and the granddaddy of all flus, the Spanish flu of 1918-19 which killed over 20 million people worldwide are caused by the influenza A virus. Influenza is the flu for which we receive the annual flu vaccine. This virus is constantly changing its outer appearance and is why each year a new cocktail of virus particles must be made into a vaccine.

When SARS first appeared scientists thought this is it, the next big pandemic we have all been expecting. Thankfully it does not appear to be the case and instead is a completely new virus subtype in the coronavirus family which normally only caused the common cold in humans, but in other animals like cats and pigs can cause serious disease.

If there is a silver lining to this outbreak in Toronto and around the world, it is that we are being forced to become prepared logistically for the next big influenza outbreak which will come. We are long overdue. SARS has a low mortality rate of about three percent, and currently in Toronto although we have over a hundred cases as of today no one is in critical condition. This will pass eventually and we will have had a practice run for how to handle the next big influenza pandemic.

No real panic here but I went to the grocery store tonight with a bit of a head cold I received lots of suspicious looks though when one sniffels in public. People then seem to take a wide berth around you

 

[Butch103]

the hardest thing to control is the panic and paranoia that seems to be creeping into this whole issue........

It sounds as if the health world in Ontario at least is at least trying to control the spread of the virus....

 

[Cherry]

This thing sure is wide spread I see on the CNN website there are 45 cases in the US I wonder where they are? 28 in Canada with 5 deaths todate. see the following site

http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/03/23/mystery.virus.breakdown/index.html

Cherry

 

[ScubaBaby]

Its scary that here in the UK they are not making a big issue of it - or at least I havent really heard much on the news here. But its still reached our little island with 3 reported cases in the Uk, and 2 in Ireland.

Its obviously not as serious over here as it is in the States but you'd still think they would be trying to educate our public before it reaches the same levels!

 

[clive francis]

GearHead once bubbled...
No details beyond that off the top of my head, but it sounds like one scary disease.

i thought it had been classified as a virus, a strain of the flu virus.

nothing much mentioned about it here, hard as nails us british folk