My Wife Is Being Quarentined For SARS

Fiddy.

SARS has only really been found in older people or other people who already have severe problems. That is because they actually are affected, otherwise it seems merely like a flu with a fever, and possibly a bit of trouble breathing (I believe). It is spreading, and so more people who are old / already have problems will be exposed to it, hence making the death rate rise.

The only way to really stop it is for everyone to stay in their houses for 10 days. Imagine the signups... That is if the net would function still....

Hope everything goes well Pete.

Cheers,
Matt

Man, I hope you are right..

But according to specialists, SARS is now a threat to young: MD
As the virus mutates, it appears to be gaining potency.

http://canada.com/national/story.asp...B-E3EDC780828A

Canada should brace itself for a possible new threat from the havoc-wreaking SARS virus: deaths among younger, otherwise healthy patients, experts warned yesterday at the start of a crucial weekend for the outbreak.

Most of the 13 Canadians to die from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome so far have been elderly and all have suffered from some other medical condition.

But Hong Kong has seen a spate of deaths among people in their 30s and 40s, and younger patients in Canada seem to be getting more ill from the ailment, said experts on infectious disease.

As the virus mutates, it appears to be gaining potency, not losing it, the specialists said, although the deadliest strains may not have made it to Canada.

"We were feeling that, yes, we were seeing people die, but there was an explanation. These were older people (with other conditions), people in their 80s, people in their 70s," said Dr. Donald Low, head microbiologist at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital.

"But hearing what is happening in Hong Kong with people in their 30s or 40s dying, that's really bothersome."

He noted that two doctors who came down with SARS after treating members of Bukas Loob Sa Diyos, a Catholic prayer group in Toronto hit by 29 cases of the disease, are in serious condition and neither are elderly.

"It's obvious the virus is not losing any of its pathogenicity, losing its virulence as it continues to cause disease from person to person. Maybe it's gaining virulence," he said.

"We are hearing more about young people coming down with the disease. This means we are probably more concerned about this disease than a couple of weeks ago."

Dr. Coleman Rotstein, president of the Canadian Infectious Disease Society, said he also is anxious about the more youthful, robust victims in Hong Kong. It appears there are a number of variances of the virus, with some more virulent than others, he said.

"We have to be very, very vigilant right now," said the physician. "Don't let our guard down."

There are 14 that died now. On the weekend a 99 year old man died of it.

Mutation discovery raises fears over developing vaccine
By Richard McGregor in Shanghai
Published: April 22 2003 5:00 | Last Updated: April 22 2003 5:00

China's top genomics institute discovered that the Sars virus was mutating rapidly when it independently sequenced its genetic blueprint, raising new fears about developing a vaccine to combat it.


"A few nucleotide differences among individual genomes were detected, as the virus is expected to mutate very fast and easily," said the Beijing Genomics Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in a statement on the internet.

The institute says the mutations will need to be studied further to find an accurate diagnostic test and effective treatment for the fast-spreading and sometimes lethal viral infection.

Chinese health and propaganda authorities, which have tightly controlled all information about Sars, initially refused to allow the institute to make a public announcement of its findings when it completed the sequencing on April 16.

The institute, one of China's most respected research bodies, circumvented the restriction by posting its findings without fanfare on an academic website.

Similar institutes in Canada and the US that have also sequenced samples of the Sars virus in the last fortnight had won praise from their governments.

But the tide turned against the health and political establishment in China with the dismissal of senior officials on Sunday over their handling of the crisis, and in favour of experts such as the scientists at the institute.

The institute has now received official backing from Hu Jintao, China's president, who visited researchers at the weekend to compliment them on their work.

The institute collaborated with the Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in Beijing to decipher the code of two viruses collected from samples in China.

One was isolated from a lung autopsy in Guangzhou, southern China, near to where the virus is believed to have originated. The second was from a mixture of autopsy tissues from the liver and lymph nodes of a Sars victim in Beijing, according to the web posting.

The sequencing allowed the development of a much-needed diagnostic test which can detect the presence of the Sars virus within one hour, the Chinese media reported yesterday.

The test detects the presence of an antibody produced by the body in response to infection with the virus.

The Beijing Genomics Institute is best known for recently sequencing the DNA of the rice genome and is also involved in the international human genome project. Web postings about the Sars virus can be found at: www.gpbjournal.org/sars.jsp (English) and www.genomics.org.cn (Chinese).

Ugh sorry to hear that Pete.. hope she's okay.. Went through it with my daughter, so I definitely know the feeling. Fortunately where we lived at the time we didn't leave home ANYWAYS, so it was all good.. picked it up from the airplane.. I don't think I've ever seen my daughter so sick, ever. Terrifed me. The rest of us were okay though.

Coronaviruses are very difficult to make vaccines for because of the high rate of mutation. Hopefully they get the whole SARS thing under control, but they're saying now there's two strains.. One that makes you really sick, and another that is deadly. I'm sure your wife will be okay though Pete if she's already relatively healthy. SARS , like any disease is worse when you have a comprimised immune system.

My wife doesnt have SARS. She is home now.

Thank God

excellent news!

fucking make everyone work from home for 10 days already. Fuck the mortality rate mutating to a higher percentage. People with symptoms should be under strict quarantine - they shouldn't be able to leave the house - use those electronic anklets for home detention, people that leave the house should be charged with endangering lives or attempted manslaughter.. I wonder how bad it's going to have to get before we see some real effort to contain it.

good news.

great news