Baffling Resistance to SARS [AIDS patients may be resistant]

Newsday ^ | April 29, 2003 | Laurie Garrett

[aristeides]

Presumably the bulk of the population in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Vietnam have the wrong receptors. It would be interesting to know what the racial breakdown of the victims is in Toronto.

[riri]

Oh, this is getting weird...

[riri]

Since SARS is just now getting started in India, we may find out within two months

Have we seen a death in India? Have we even seen a severe case in India to date?

[aristeides]

Would there be a different concentration of these receptors in the immune systems of children? Could that explain why children do so much better with the disease?

[aristeides]

As far as I know, the cases in India have turned out not to be severe, at least so far.

[aristeides]

So, can China cope with the epidemic in the short run by finding some way to temporarily suppress people's immune systems?

[Nebullis]

Interesting!

[riri]

Probably not. But I am sure they will find a way to permanently supress people's immune systems, if you catch my drift.

[riri]

supress s/b suppress

[IvanT]

It would be interesting to know what the racial breakdown of the victims is in Toronto.

When they last listed the victims, I would say 85% or higher (as I recall) of them were of Asian decent. However, they've since stopped reporting on victims' ethnic backgrounds, and have simply given their respective ages, curiously enough. Also, I've noted a great majority of the quarantines have also been Asian - one being a Filipino Catholic group. The caucasian doctors that contracted the virus seemed to recover quite quickly in my opinion. Interestingly, my own mother, who taught ballet to some of the children in the Catholic group of filipinos, had close contact with the children and some of the parents. She took two weeks off, and developed absolutely no symptons, she's of slavic descent, I like to think that had something to do with it.

[aristeides]

Thanks. Seems to support the hypothesis.

[CathyRyan]

This is a small section of a comment from a post on another site. I do not know if it the info is creditable or not I am just put it to be kicked around.

.........This suggests as a working hypothesis that SARS may provoke a cascade, via CD32-binding and downstream activation of NF-kB and other inflammatory pathways. Immune suppression could reduce the number of circulating CD32+ cells. Certainly infants have lower levels and activity of CD32+ cells, since it would be counterproductive to circulating maternal antibody levels.


http://www.sarswatch.org/comments.php?id=218_0_1_0_C

[Diddle E. Squat]

Does this mean that SARS is God's punishment for heterosexuals?

[ido_now]

Yes, in the little known 5th Koch Postulate it says:

"Once you have come down with one phony disease,

you can never contract another phony disease,

unless you have been cured of the first, first."

[aristeides]

I also read on that forum an extremely interesting comment about Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP): In cats, Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP) is currently believed to be a runaway immune system response to a coronavirus infection, very similar to what is suggested here. FIP has a highly variable set of symptoms (and can include both respiratory and digestive system involvement), and once a cat is symptomatic, it is typically fatal.

[riri]

Madison Firm Develops SARS Test"

[riri]

India's SARS Cases Double to 19; Nine Hospital Staff Members Get Disease While Treating Family

The Associated Press

BOMBAY, India April 30 ?
The number of SARS cases in India doubled to 19 on Wednesday as nine staff members of a hospital that treated an infected family came down with the flu-like disease and another man tested positive after visiting Singapore.

So far, SARS has not caused any deaths in India. However, officials fear the transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome from a patient to medical staff could signal a major jump in the progress of the disease in this country of more than 1 billion people.

The nine staff were among 22, including three doctors, of the Siddharth Hospital in the western Indian city of Pune who quarantined themselves in the hospital after it was shut down last week following treatment of four infected family members.

On Wednesday, a laboratory test confirmed the nine were carrying the SARS virus, said Sushil Kumar Shinde, chief minister of Maharashtra state where Pune is located. A second test is necessary for final confirmation.

The hospital director, however, said none of the nine were showing symptoms and there was no risk of the virus spreading.

"There is zero risk (of the disease spreading). I have not heard a single sneeze in this hospital for the past 10 days," Dr. Vijay Sethia told The Associated Press by telephone.

Earlier Wednesday, authorities had reported the country's 10th SARS case, a man in the southern state of Tamil Nadu who returned from SARS-hit Singapore last week.

The 44-year-old truck driver was admitted Friday to the Christian Medical College in Vellore, about 95 miles southwest of Madras, the state capital. Blood tests confirmed he had SARS but now he has "fully recovered," said Dr. Kurien Thomas, a professor at the college.

Of the other nine reported SARS cases in India, five have recovered. The other four are being treated in Bombay, New Delhi, Jaipur and Vellore.

The flu-like illness has killed more than 370 people and sickened about 5,300 worldwide. Some Indian doctors have said Indian authorities were treating SARS too casually and warned it could spread swiftly among the population.

"Health authorities did not give us any guidelines. We had to go to the Internet to find out what we required to do," said Sethia, the director of the Pune hospital.

[aristeides]

So far, SARS has not caused any deaths in India.

[Nov3]

An earlier article said immunocomprimised people tend to shed the virus longer and in greater quantities. Boy isn't that great!

[Betty Jo]

Since SARS tests are not perfected,since AIDS patients have so many illnesses already including that pneumocystic lung disease,since companies making AIDS antivirals are hot into SARS antivirals,I am not convinced that AIDS is the way to save you from SARS.

This and all the other facts will take a long time to establish.