I want to set the record straight about SARS

[Fas-ligand]

Firstly, I must say that SARS has become more of a panic than is necessary.

Maybe some of you medical people out there can back me up. Yes, SARS is a serious disease. Yes, the worst part of it is that it is spread to readily. What I believe people do not understand is that when you are infected with something, you do not always come down with disease. People have been infected with West Nile virus because they have antibodies in their system, but they never even knew they were infected. The same is true for SARS.

Reading the WHO website for SARS information, I found an article dated 4.14.03 that said that 96% of people infected with SARS spontaneously get better, that's why there are quite a large number of cases and relatively few deaths (4% to be exact). I've been curious to see if anyone thought "well, I've seen this many cases 10 days ago, and now there are a few more deaths. Why isn't it closer for a disease that kills in about 10 days?". This is the reason.

Here's the article (http://www.who.int/csr/don/2003_04_14a/en/)

Be careful out there everyone and know the truth.

[Momma Kitty]

ok, I live with this man and I'm not sure what he is talking about...hope someone else does. :P

[Fas-ligand]

ok ok, in case you haven't heard...

SARS = Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. This is a viral infection with similar symptoms to pneumonia. The main exception is having a very high temperature.

[Momma Kitty]

ok, thanks for clearing that up hunny :D

[eSDee]

Hey hey hey, get a chat room you guys :P

I hear what you are saying and I have thought the same thing. Did the West Nile virus turn out to be the epidemic that it was made to sound like? Nope, just the media hyping up something to keep the viewer watching. I think it's almost time for Spontaneous Combustion to come back around ;)

[CornMonkey]

the avatars confused me...i thought for a second that it was one person talking to himself. :confused:

[welfareloser]

if you lived in a city where 100's of people had it, you'd be jumpy.

4% chance of dying if you get it... you wanna make an effort not to get it. :shrug: i don't think anyone in the US is panicking... and i think china (the govt) needs to take it more seriously than they are (as usual) ... and the ppl are handling it about right... masks in highly infected areas, ppl pretty much going about their daily business.

two other things:

there is no drug that seems to do much of anything, which is a bit new and different and a bit scary (combinations of drugs and very good hospital care may help substantially)

and also unusual is that the 4% that it's killing are not the very young, the very old, the sick, and the weak, as is generally the case with something like this... the 4% seems to be a pretty random cross-section of ppl who get, including middle-aged adults of robust health.

i have yet to see anyone making a bigger deal out of this than is warranted. should have put more restrictions on travel several months ago.

[kame]

GET A ROOM!...

BA HUM BUG...

[xsiled2]

Originally posted by CornMonkey
the avatars confused me...i thought for a second that it was one person talking to himself. :confused:

well in a way he was sig other... haha ok to school with me...

[attgig]

random thoughts come to me.....

and here's one of them.
with all these diseases....sars, cancer, west nile, etc.... shouldn't we just let them die? Only the strongest survive, right? and by letting them live, and letting them have children...aren't we allowing the human race to become weaker?

morally, that's one of the most disgusting things that has come outta my random thoughts.

but biologically, darwinism and all, we're ruining the human race, and crippling ourselves as a whole. thoughts of the movie antz are coming into my head too...I sound like general mandible :P

anyways.

[InfiniteNothing]

Did you miss Welfare's post. Let me recap. It kills everyone, not just the weak.



Originally posted by welfareloser
much of anything, which is a bit new and different and a bit scary (combinations of drugs and very good hospital care may help substantially)

and also unusual is that the 4% that it's killing are not the very young, the very old, the sick, and the weak, as is generally the case with something like this... the 4% seems to be a pretty random cross-section of ppl who get, including middle-aged adults of robust health.
ago.

[mcs328]

I don't want to be that 4%. It's the rate of contamination also in asian populations. Not an asian phenomena(sp?) but just geographically in asian areas. So I'll be buying a 10 ft pole when my gf gets back from Taiwan next week. :P I'm kidding.

With anything prevention is good if you know there's something you can do or just take reasonable precautions. I dunno what a reasonalbe precuation is for West Nile except I hope not to get bitten by mosquitoes. Wear protection for STD's. Don't smoke for lung cancer. Blah blah. SARS seems to be general cleanliness and I think they are taking reasonable precuation until more info is being dugged up.

The washingtonpost has a small faq-ish link.
Washingtonpost (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11849-2003Apr2.html)

[ray]

Well, seeing that my parents and all their ancestors grew up in Hong Kong and China, it kinda hits hard when I hear that 140+ people have died from it in that area. Though all my family has moved to North America, I still have friends back in Hong Kong who now have to wear surgeon's masks everytime they go outside. That's not exactly a lifestyle anyone wants. Just think about all the people in Israel who have gas masks. Sure, there's a slight chance that someone will attack, but what IF.

I think that the US is lucky SARS hasn't spread to here. Sure, 96% of people recover quickly, however, did you all know that most of the people dying are in their 20's and 30's? I for one, always thought that it was the children and the older people who were dying. Nope, it was the middle aged human...i'm guessing those are more susceptible to death because they think their bodies can fight the flu-like symptoms.

Lastly, SARS is much more severe than West Nile virus. When there was the whole bit about west nile, airlines weren't shutting down flights and tourism wasn't declining. All of this, is of course, occuring with SARS.

[ray]

In addition, there is NO CURE to SARS.

[mcs328]

Originally posted by lilbigblue
In addition, there is NO CURE to SARS.

Yes there is...you're supposed to get rest and spontaneously get better. :P

Anyone know where can I buy some of this "spotaniety"? :D

[ray]

bah! haha

[attgig]

Originally posted by InfiniteNothing
Did you miss Welfare's post. Let me recap. It kills everyone, not just the weak.


ok, i think you're missing the whole 'strong survive' idea....


strong doesn't mean old and feeble.
by 'strong survive', I'm talking about the 96% of the people who have built in antibodies against sars.
and also, it doesn't kill everyone...it kills 4% of the population.

by eliminating the 4% of the people who die from SARS, we have a human race that's stronger because we don't have to worry about a disease called SARS.....

[zenbooty]

Originally posted by attgig


ok, i think you're missing the whole 'strong survive' idea....


strong doesn't mean old and feeble.
by 'strong survive', I'm talking about the 96% of the people who have built in antibodies against sars.
and also, it doesn't kill everyone...it kills 4% of the population.

by eliminating the 4% of the people who die from SARS, we have a human race that's stronger because we don't have to worry about a disease called SARS..... Part of our strength as human beings is our ability to use our brains to adapt to our environment and protect ourselves from threats. If human beings only relied on their physical strength and constitution to survive ordeals, we would have been extinct many many years ago. Modern medicine is a collective "defense." You could say that through our ability to adapt, think, communicate, and develop tools and technologies outside of our own personal physicalities, we are evolving as a species away from individual bodies to a more collective "entity." But now I'm getting into personal beliefs, which is an entirely different topic which I won't go into any further.

And remember, 4% of the worlds population is still > 200 million people. It would be by far the greatest human catastrophe ever!

[attgig]

Originally posted by zenbooty
Part of our strength as human beings is our ability to use our brains to adapt to our environment and protect ourselves from threats. If human beings only relied on their physical strength and constitution to survive ordeals, we would have been extinct many many years ago.

or maybe we would have evolved into something very different than where we are now... where physically, we would be so much stronger than where we are now, and that on top of that the brainiacs would've been able to survive for other reasons...so that everyone is strong and smart....



and don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that anyone with a disease should die....just...for arguments sake...to dig a little deeper into the whole evolutionary process

[Fas-ligand]

nice little debate we have going on here. I too have thought about a stronger species if we hadn't brought medicine into the subject.

NEway, the one reason SARS has been in the news lately is because of it's mode of transmission. This is the scary part of this disease. Personally, I hope that the WHO is right when they said that there should be a cure in a year. If this disease has only killed a few hundred people since November (which is when it was first seen in China), then I think we're doing pretty good. If you happened to read the article I mentioned first, it also says that a test should be available by the end of the week. Using this test will most likely reduce the number of suspected cases...a good thing for pin-pointing it and reducing future transmission.

I also think about SARS vs AIDS, which are practically opposites. Think about the impact AIDS has had on our society for the past few decades.

And an interesting side note that I always think about when I hear SARS in the news is my virology prof. He always said that a good virus was one that killed its hosts slowly and with few symptoms. A bad disease is one that is a quick killer. The only thing SARS has going for it is its mode of transmission.

[RoniMan]

Originally posted by mcs328


Yes there is...you're supposed to get rest and spontaneously get better. :P

Anyone know where can I buy some of this "spotaniety"? :D
"The search box is on the right side of the page under 'search deals.' You can find our entire archive there." - Apex


i don't think anyone in the US is panicking...

actually, if you live in a predominantly asian area, there's panick. b/c most of them aer either worried about ppl they know back at home, or they're planning on travelling soon. and since all asians know each other, we end up knowing someone who has died from the disease. seriouly, i've had rumors come to me that one supermarket by my house was closed down for SARS!

[Acy]

I spent my spring break in Taiwan and Japan. When I returned to campus, my RAs told me to go see a doctor and get checked for SARS.

I think it's totally unreasonable. There are more cases of SARS in the US than in Japan and Taiwan combined.

Are people still confusing Taiwan with China?

Anyway, I agree that people are overreacting a little bit. Most of the people who get SARS do recover. The people who have real problems are the elderly or those with preexisting medical conditions.

[atomicdog]

Originally posted by attgig


ok, i think you're missing the whole 'strong survive' idea....


strong doesn't mean old and feeble.
by 'strong survive', I'm talking about the 96% of the people who have built in antibodies against sars.
and also, it doesn't kill everyone...it kills 4% of the population.

by eliminating the 4% of the people who die from SARS, we have a human race that's stronger because we don't have to worry about a disease called SARS.....

I don't think it's as simple as that. I think reducing the gene pool like you say will not in general lead to a stronger human race. The 4% that you eliminate could have other genes that are very beneficial to the human race. For example, a disease might come around in the future that the 4% could have adapted to very easily whereas the 96% are extremely vulnerable. Basically my point is that utilizing your idea, the human race might very quickly fall into a monoculture type problem.

[RoniMan]

Originally posted by Acy
I spent my spring break in Taiwan and Japan. When I returned to campus, my RAs told me to go see a doctor and get checked for SARS.

I think it's totally unreasonable. There are more cases of SARS in the US than in Japan and Taiwan combined.

Are people still confusing Taiwan with China?

Anyway, I agree that people are overreacting a little bit. Most of the people who get SARS do recover. The people who have real problems are the elderly or those with preexisting medical conditions.

well, as a RA for 3 years, i have to say that they were probably doing their job; looking out for the residents. first of, if you're infected, then you would know early on. secondly, if you're not, you can rest easy that you'll be ok. i don't think ppl are confusing taiwan and china, but you should know the amt of traffic btw china and taiwan is enuf for ppl to get scared (esp if they've just watched outbreak the movie).

at a time like this the RA is simplying being safe than sorry.

[Acy]

Originally posted by RoniMan


well, as a RA for 3 years, i have to say that they were probably doing their job; looking out for the residents. first of, if you're infected, then you would know early on. secondly, if you're not, you can rest easy that you'll be ok. i don't think ppl are confusing taiwan and china, but you should know the amt of traffic btw china and taiwan is enuf for ppl to get scared (esp if they've just watched outbreak the movie).

at a time like this the RA is simplying being safe than sorry.


I agree that there is considerable amount of travel between China and Taiwan. However, since the outbreak, this number has decreased dramtically. You could make the same argument for traveling to Canada from the US. Actually, Canada and the US have the 2nd and 3rd highest numbers of infections respectively.

If the RAs were being fair in executing a "better safe than sorry" policy they should have asked everyone who traveled abroad to get checked.

As of April 16
--------------
Canada 296 cases 13 dead
US 193 cases

Taiwan 23 cases
Japan 1 case

The reason I was annoyed by this request was because my RAs were making decisions without taking a good look at the facts. They did not even ask if I was feeling ill or not. If I had traveled to a SARS "hot spot" I would have felt personally responsible to see a doctor even if I were feeling perfectly fine. However, since I did not, I cannot agree with my RAs.

[le_stick]

Here is my 1.5 cents.....since we are, the human, on the top of the food chain. Only we can control the population by mean of war or some other methods. And lately, we do not see any major conflict that could eliminate millions of people in a short period of time. So disease is the next best thing to control the population. And we all know that it still not enough, because right now the world population is more than 6 billions and growing......we need to cut down some.....like....4 or 5 billions. If this ever happen, I will almost sure that people will be more friendly to each other......:rolleyes:

[The Punisher]

Originally posted by le_stick
Here is my 1.5 cents.....since we are, the human, on the top of the food chain. Only we can control the population by mean of war or some other methods. And lately, we do not see any major conflict that could eliminate millions of people in a short period of time. So disease is the next best thing to control the population. And we all know that it still not enough, because right now the world population is more than 6 billions and growing......we need to cut down some.....like....4 or 5 billions. If this ever happen, I will almost sure that people will be more friendly to each other......:rolleyes:

On that note, lets promote smoking so more people die from lung cancer... that's a disease by choice but we gotta figure out a way to make them kill you faster :poke:

[yippiekiyeh]

For those of you who want to know the amounts, please check the WHO website. http://www.who.int/csr/sarscountry/2003_04_16/en/

FYI Taiwan is up to 27 now :|

I think the point is, there are cases and they are just covering their bases

[Sir_Froggy]

you know what really sucks?

even though people today die of cancer and stuff like that, imagine a few decades later, people will be dying of diseases much worse, as in making the having it and then the dying with it worse, like rotting alive....or burned from the inside......or looking lik a cake whenever Anna Nicole Smith is around.......

[Fas-ligand]

Originally posted by Sir_Froggy
you know what really sucks?

even though people today die of cancer and stuff like that, imagine a few decades later, people will be dying of diseases much worse, as in making the having it and then the dying with it worse, like rotting alive....or burned from the inside......or looking lik a cake whenever Anna Nicole Smith is around.......

There's truth to that. I have been told that a new virus, i.e. AIDS, SARS, etc., comes out about once a decade. See how true it's been so far!

[brainsmile]

SARS = Some Asains Really Smell

[sbp]

Originally confessed by brainsmile
SARS = Some Asains Really Small :eek: