SARS Found In Restaurant Animal Cages

New Scientist ^ | 1-16-2004 | Gaia Vince/Debora MacKenzie

[blam]

Ping.

[riri]

People with one gene variant (HLA-B 0703) were four times more likely to contract the deadly disease than average. In contrast, people with another variant (HLA-DRB1 0301) were more likely to resist SARS infection

Interesting, I wonder if it more prevalent in some ethnic groups over others?

[riri]

Liu may have caught the virus from a rat he removed from his apartment shortly before falling ill. Ten per cent of the rats in Liu's building have now been found to carry the virus, says Zhong. But all the civets tested carried it, so Zhong feels they are the ultimate source. "We must stop rearing, selling and eating civets," he says.

That doesn't sound very good. Not good at all.

[blam]

Two suspected Sars patients confirmed

Two suspected Sars patients in southern China have been confirmed to have the disease.

The two cases were a 20-year-old restaurant waitress and a 35-year-old businessman, the official Xinhua News Agency said in a brief dispatch, citing the Health Ministry.

The two people were identified as suspected cases on January 8 and January 13, Xinhua said.

"After strict tests by the World Health Organisation laboratories, they were confirmed to be Sars cases," Xinhua said.

The woman was discharged from hospital today and all the people who had contact with her have been removed from medical observation without showing any symptoms, Xinhua said.

The businessman was in stable condition, it said.

The season's first confirmed case, a 32-year-old television producer, was released from the hospital last week.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome emerged in November 2002 in Guangdong and sickened more than 8,000 people globally before subsiding in June.

Story filed: 09:45 Saturday 17th January 2004

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Restaurant cages. Isn't it better to have the butcher off-site?

[riri]

I remember during the dark days of last year's SARS outbreak we did some speculation about rats carrying the virus and we theorized that if they did surely we would have seen restaurant workers contracting the disease.

Uh oh.

[OXENinFLA]

*******Found In Restaurant Animal Cages

yummmm.

[Cicero]

It's VERY worrying that SARS has moved into the rat population. They can stop people eating civet cats, maybe, but what are they going to do about rats spreading the disease? It's been long established that rats are too clever and too widespread to exterminate, no matter how hard you try. They are the perfect disease spreaders, as the black plague thoroughly demonstrated in 1348.

[B4Ranch]

"Liu may have caught the virus from a rat he removed from his apartment shortly before falling ill. "

If he had washed his hands afterwards, I'm sure that would have done a lot to keep him healthy.

[riri]

I agree not a good development.

[riri]

If he had washed his hands afterwards, I'm sure that would have done a lot to keep him healthy.

Probably but who knows where the rat had crawled and left bits of this very durable virus to be picked up unwittingly a day or two or a week later.

[riri]

China's SARS cases might be caused by milder form of virus

[Free Trapper]

IIRC,there was a very good article on the Pacific News Service on Jan.1,04.I don't post articles but it was called "China's Dangerous Wild Tastes".

The article explains why it would be very difficult to stop the wild animal trade in East Asia.There's too much money to be made in the trade(worldwide)for "someone" not to supply it.

[B4Ranch]

I do know that the Hong Kong Chinese eat the larger dock rats regularly and sanitation isn't a prime concern in those communities.

[blam]

"Restaurant cages. Isn't it better to have the butcher off-site?"

I expect freshness is a selling point, just like some restaurants here will show you the live lobster that will be cooked for you.

[blam]

'This Could Be Way Worse Than SARS'

[Tacis]

I make it a point to never eat in a restaurant where the waitor minces up to me and says, "Hi, I'm Bruce and I'll be your sever this evening. The chef has prepared sveral specials and the main courses are in those cages over by the plasma TV. Can I start you off with one of our specialty appetizers?"

[Domestic Church]

Think of the wharf rats and the cargo ships. This virus stayed on metal and plastic longer than a day. Only a matter of time until we hear of the next sick freighter seeking a port.

At the end of last years outbreak there was the news that some people in southern China had antibodies but never had the extreme symptoms. They had to be contagious at some point even if asymptomatic. This will make for a very difficult quarantine if it breaks in large numbers again.

[HighWheeler]

""We must stop rearing, selling and eating civets," he says."

Well, there goes my Memorial Day weekend plans.