Attention-physicians, Biologists, Epidemiologists, Virologists & Others! Alert!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
121

The latest from Amoy Gardens. Ewwwwwww…

Officials think infected particles from “bodily waste” (or “doodies” in Cantonese) left by construction workers on the top floors of a half-built block may have blown across to the top floors of Amoy Gdns. One worker at the site has been confirmed as carrying SARS. (The temporary toilets for workers were all at ground level, and they were too lazy to make the trip.)

Oh, and someone’s cat has got it.

This courtesy of the S China Morning Post - a subscription-only website, so I can’t link.

122

Yep, Shanghai American School is closed for the week.

We also got a briefing about SARS at school today. They’re also spraying anti-septic stuff in the classrooms. Windows are open wide. People are starting to wear masks.

Personally, I think everyone is being paranoid about this.

123

Hemlock, thanks for that. I was pretty sure they would find the vector of infection pretty soon. If it was airborne, there would be millions infected. Well, I’m on a plane to the US for a big global conference next week…

124

eww… :eek:

125

My colleagues and I were talking about this after reading the SCMP headline.

Of course people would have opened their windows to air their homes out in order to circulate air to avoid SARS. And in fly the golden droplets.

I didn’t notice how tall the construction site was. Was it really that the workers were too lazy to go to ground level and they decided to take a leak over the side for shits and giggles? Or was the construction site too high, and not fitted out with toilets at the top floors?

I can see the company doing the construction getting into trouble with the Health Department, either way.

126

Bush signs bill authorizing Federal Quarrantine in necessary
http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/04/04/sars.bush/index.html

127

What percent of them wear seatbelts? (And I bet it’s hard to light a cigarette with a mask on.)

128

Just flying out of Bangkok right now, via Singapore, Amsterdam and Newark. When I flew into BKK (Don Muang) last Sunday only a handful of people had the surgical masks. Today it was up to 70-80%, with even higher numbers for airport employees. Only a few people in masks on the streets. I was the ONLY passenger on our 747 flight from BKK to Changi in First Class. Not that I minded the attention.

In Singapore (Changi) it’s a little more than before, also about 60-80% (rough guess). But I don’t see anyone wearing a mask in the First class lounge, which has about 50-100 people in it. So if a bunch of well-to-do folk get sick maybe that will confirm the aerosol spread.

Will let you know about Schipol and Newark in the morning… your roving Reporter!

129

An extremely common - maybe the *most * common - way for cold viruses to spread is via hand contact. You shake hands with someone who has a cold (and just sneezed into their hand or wiped their nose). Then you touch your eye or nose. A mask will not protect you in these cases. Watch people wearing masks, and you will often see them reaching under it to wipe or touch their mouths or noses. And their eyes aren’t protected at all, another open mucous membrane.

130

I’m also guessing the sale of voodoo quack herbs and potions in SE Asia has skyrocked.

131

Yeah, apparently there is some sort of Chinese medical combination being touted which induces diahorrea and is designed to “cleanse the body” of germs.

Oddly enough, I saw a man who had cut a hole in his surgical mask to accomodate his cigarette.

132

A new update which I find slightly disturbing:

Yuck! Sounds purely speculative to me, anyway. But still, yuck!

133

Horsefeathers!

Contrary to popular wisdom, blattidae elegians (sp?) is rarely a carrier of disease.

134

The origional data indicated a paramoxyvirus.

There is a chance that non-specific antibodies generated through the MMR vaccine series might cross react with SARS.

However this is now a mute point as a different pathogen was identified.

135

Just got this email you might find interesting:

[[As a registered user of www.thelancet.com, I thought you would be
interested to know that research from Hong Kong, fast-tracked for
publication on THE LANCET’s website, provides evidence that a new
virus belonging to the family Coronaviridae is likely to be the main
cause of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

Malik Peiris from the University of Hong Kong and colleagues studied
50 patients with SARS from five separate outbreak clusters. After
identifying a new type of coronavirus from two patients, they
subsequently found evidence of virus activity in 90% of the patients
compared with 0% for a control group of healthy individuals or those
with unrelated illnesses.

The investigators comment that the new virus is not one of the two
known human coronaviruses. Nor is it exactly like any of the known
animal coronaviruses. Although more genetic analysis needs to be
done to be certain, Peiris believes that it may be a new virus which
may have originated from animals.

He comments: “This report provides evidence that a virus in the
coronavirus family is the etiological agent of SARS. However it
remains possible that other viruses act as opportunistic secondary
invaders to enhance the disease progression, a hypothesis that needs
to be investigated further.”

Ann Falsey and Edward Walsh from the University of Rochester, New
York, USA, state in an accompanying Commentary: “These findings
significantly strengthen the tentative aetiological association
reported by other investigators who have also isolated a novel
coronavirus from patients with SARS. As other pathogens, such as
human metapneumovirus and Chlamydia spp, are identified in SARS
patients, it will be important to use control groups to determine
their role in causality or as cofactors for severe disease.”

This study has been published early online at www.thelancet.com and
is available by clicking the link below:
http://www.thelancet.com/journal/vol361/iss9364/full/llan.361.9364.early_online_publication.25242.1

For more information on how to receive your own personal weekly copy
of THE LANCET – including full text online access to the extensive
journal archive – simply click on the link:
www.thelancet.com/subscription.

Best regards
Richard Horton
Editor, THE LANCET ]

136

The latest poop I’ve heard is that the virus is 40% different from known coronaviruses. I’m tired of wearing a frigging costume in my emergency room. SARS is making it hard for us to get sick patietns transferred to bigger centres. SARS is causing sick people from not coming to the hosptial here, even with chest pain or severe illnesses. I think our government did a good job initially containing the illness and that it is high time for it to back off with its restrictions outside of Toronto.

137

SARS Update-- A “Typhoid Mary” of SARS.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Living/ap20030409_202.html

138

SARS FATALITY RATE MORE THAN TWICE AS HIGH AS INITIALLY ESTIMATED!! NOT 4% DEATH RATE—10%!! Click here for link to New Scientist Article!