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I am really not happy with China's policy over SARs out break.

Schools and all sectors should be shut.

Those stupid masks are as good as a wooden shield against modern tanks.
Bacterias grow in surgeon masks and they prevent sitting of bacteria on close quarters and large scale but not against air borne SARs. :(

Viruses don't just go away in a few days, these anti-biotic immune super virus will kill until bekilled or death to humanity.

We fell behind in the anti-biotic race and must now catch up because in the 60s we were confident we had the upper hand.

Hmmmm... none of the options appeal to me really. Personally, I feel that selective quarantine will suffice for now. Contary to most media reports, the outbreak has not reached pandemic levels yet, but will be in danger of reaching such levels if not enough is done.

From what I have read, it seemed that China did not want to alarm its' populance, and I can understand that to a certain degree. Though they really should seriously consider applying quarantine measures( closing schools for example, as you said) in the province(s) that have been affected, but not shut down all the whole country.

If I recall correctly, they have send somebody to the village where SARS is common( and originated from) to study the villagers who seem to be resistant( but not immuned) to SARS. I am guessing they are trying to devise a suitable treatment for current SARS victims by using antibodies from the villagers( like they did over here with antibodies from a Hong Kong woman who has recovered).

My fingers are crossed, but I hope they succeed in finding an easy treatment for SARS.

You know... it is just plain wierd to see the streets that much emptier during peak hours, that and the ominous presence of masks( masks that are mostly useless because people are mostly using the wrong type of masks).

Oh, I forgot to mention something. SARS is not confirmed to be airborne-transmittable. It is suspected that it might be airborne, but until it is confirmed, the only sure way to get SARS is through close contact with a carrier( roughly a 1-meter radius).

In addition, the virus that causes SARS seems to be a mutant-variant of the Corona virus family.

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That is true, though I still believe it is deadly</font>

Although interestingly, they seem to think that SARS it not necessarily only spread by close contact (see todays quarintining of an entire apartment block). To me this looks like droplet infection via air con systems or other water pipes (as in Legionella where the bacteria are spread via aerosols of water).

Here's hoping that SARS doesn't cause too much chaos, there's already too much bad stuff going on (SIGH)

Although interestingly, they seem to think that SARS it not necessarily only spread by close contact (see todays quarintining of an entire apartment block). To me this looks like droplet infection via air con systems or other water pipes (as in Legionella where the bacteria are spread via aerosols of water).

Here's hoping that SARS doesn't cause too much chaos, there's already too much bad stuff going on (SIGH)</font>[/QUOTE]<font color=white> Goes to show how fragile our existance is when mother nature decides to mess with us. </font>

Spreading through water droplets( or body-fluid droplets if you prefer) and being airborne is rather different.

By close contact, they did not mean that you get the disease by simply being near the carrier, but that the carrier has a chance to infect you through coughing, sneezing or coating you with droplets containing viruses from their hands( which most probably has touched their noses or mouths).

Left alone, the virus dies within 2-3 hours in the open air. This is from memory though, so I may be off a bit on this one.

Air conditioners assist the virus by circulating the droplet that the virus is in to other areas through the vents. This is not true airborne-transmittable though; for that to be accurate, the virus has to be able to survive in the open air( without the droplet) and travel long enough to victims beyond the sneezing range. Powers that be forbid that this is the case though.

[ 04-02-2003, 11:41 AM: Message edited by: Dundee Slaytern ]

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That is true, though I still believe it is deadly</font></font>[/QUOTE]Maybe so, but less then 4% of the recorded cases have resulted in death. There are many diseases out there that we already know of that have a much higher rate than that. Basically, if you want non-sensationalized information, don't look at any of the news stations or webpages, they are just trying to get ratings. Look at the CDC (center for disease control), the WHO (world health organization) and I'm sure there are other of these types of organizations that have non-sensationalized information, I just don't know about them, but please, share them if you know of them.
Heck, the first weekend the reports hit, CNN (or maybe MSNBC, can't remember) was calling it "Killer Virus" even though at that point hundreds had been infected, but only 4 people had actually died.

Credit to the health workers for making the death toll as low as possible. In fact, credit and my gratitude to the Italian who first identified the virus, realised its' potential danger, but unfortunately, lost his life to it.

The thing is, SARS was noted extremely early and those who died were mostly those who did not receive early treatment. What is scary about SARS is not really about its' deadliness, but how infectious it is. One roomful of people can be infected if one of them was a carrier and he/she just sneezed. Hence all the quarantines( well... in my country. Not sure about the others).

What a nightmare SARs is. Can't believe it.... :(

Pssst, ALL viruses are immune to anti-biotics. Anti-biotics only work on bacterial infections. Viruses are controlled through the use of vaccines that help your cody develop anti-bodies to the virus before it gets to you, so once it does, you can already fight it off. To develop a vaccine, they have to "crack the code" of the virus first.

<font color=deeppink>Quite right. Instead you use antiviral chemotherapy. Plenty of such substances out on the market today, AZT is perhaps the most known. Unfortunately quite a lot of research is needed for the development of these drugs. As for masks, they can be very useful if properly prepared.

As for the poll, I think that shutting down all schools is not the most appealing way of dealing with this. If a child at one school develop symptoms it might be time to shut down that particular school for a while. [img]smile.gif[/img] </font>

well, if you are scared of getting the thing. you could wear a surgical mask or wash you hand after doing anything. avoid close contact and stay at home. that's whar the government people told us to do.

however, my mum has banned us from eating chicken. does it transmit from chicken as well?

<font color=deeppink>I doubt it since this is a respiratory virus. The acid in your stomach will thoroughly destroy the virus particles if you should ingest them. But chicken can spread other diseases, so the general rule is to cook the chicken thoroughly! [img]smile.gif[/img] </font>

hmmm..guess you are right. if it does transmit from chicken then the government people would have kill every chicken there is.

<font color=deeppink>That´s generally the flu. ;) That virus is canny indeed. It can join together different segments to form a new genome. This happens especially in pigs (when regarding the strains dangerous for humans). When a dangerous strain is found, most often in Asia, the hosts are killed to minimize the risk for a worldwide epidemic. [img]smile.gif[/img] </font>

hey guess what everyone! I live in orlando...tourist city. THe disease should be here any minute now!

oh bother, there's a report saying that someone in town has got SARS. this has caused some kind of a panic. I guess these few days will be very very " suspense ". :(

<font color=deeppink>Quite right. Instead you use antiviral chemotherapy. Plenty of such substances out on the market today, AZT is perhaps the most known. Unfortunately quite a lot of research is needed for the development of these drugs. As for masks, they can be very useful if properly prepared.

As for the poll, I think that shutting down all schools is not the most appealing way of dealing with this. If a child at one school develop symptoms it might be time to shut down that particular school for a while. [img]smile.gif[/img] </font></font>[/QUOTE]MMM! AZT not really the best analogy there, although HIV mutates so that it avoids the bodies immune systsem, its relatively vulnerable to antiviral therapy: Influenza, corona and picorna viruses mutate far faster and therefore antivirals don't get a chance to do their stuff (this is why there has never been a cure for the common cold, or flu for that matter).

<font color=deeppink>Not true. There are several substances on the market for the flu, for instance Amantadine and Ribavarin. There is also WIN-substrates against picornaviruses. And they do work just fine! ;) The reason you don´t get them is that they are reserved for critical patients. This restriction ensures that the influenza virus will not mutate. Of course there already are existing mutants against these drugs.

As for my example I gave AZT a the example since this probably is the MOST KNOWN antiviral drug. It is not an attempt of an analogy of any kind. ;) </font>

i had a friend, who was exposed to it and had a 10 day forced quarentine. She did run a high fever for a few days but thier not sure if it was sars or something else. She actually may get out early cause her fever broke and has been down for a few days. she's on her 6th day of quarentine