Posted on 03/29/2003 5:30:08 AM PST by CometBaby
My American friends living in Hong Kong called last night. The SARS in Hong Kong is much worse than has been reported. China has been fudging on the number of cases. He said that the number of new infections have been DOUBLING DAILY. It's spreading like wildfire. It's more contageous than has been admitted and there is no cure. The schools have all closed and many workplaces are not requiring employees to come in. They expect the Airport to CLOSE .. nobody knows exactly when, and people are scrambling to get out of the country before it does. The hospitals are all full and they plan to begin to quaranteen people in their homes.
He said that walking in Hong Kong is absolutely surreal .. everyone is wearing masks. And another thing .. they are running out of masks. It's really bad.
In contrast, the 1918-1919 flu pandemic killed approximately a third of the 60 million afflicted
The Spanish flu may have killed a third of the victims that were hospitalized or bedridden. Many more may have simply fought it off. The actual mortality of the Spanish flu is thought to be about 2.5%. SARS mortality may be less than the current 3.7% rate for the same reason.
I don't think Mr. Fumento's attitude is helpful. The flu kills the young and elderly and immune-compromised. This virus, as did the Spanish flu in 1918, afflicts very healthy people in their prime.
Regarding SARS virulence, many of the current index cases of SARS were infected by simply staying on the same hotel rooom floor as a sick doctor. We don't know how virulent SARS would be if the victims are ambulatory.
Even with strong infection controls in Singapore and Toronto (not medical backwaters), cases are increasing. There are even early reports of community-acquired cases, cases that are not directly connected to the known index cases.
It bears watching and Fumento's complacence is not warranted.
and... this just in...
The World Health Organisation (WHO) doctor who first identified the fast-spreading pneumonia that has killed 54 people worldwide has himself died of the disease, the United Nations agency said on Saturday local time.
Dr Carlo Urbani, 46, identified the outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in an US businessman admitted to hospital in Hanoi in Vietnam, where Dr Urbani was based.
The virus, which has flu-like symptoms, has infected about 1,500 people.
"Because of his early detection of SARS, global surveillance was heightened and many new cases have been identified and isolated before they infected hospital staff," the WHO said in a statement.
WHO director-general Gro Harlem Brundtland paid tribute to Urbani, who was married with three children.
"His life reminds us again of our true work in public health," she said.
We shall see.
Yes. The same is true for the reported mortality rate of the 1918 Spanish flu. Fumento is trying to have it both ways. See my #63.
Illiterate class war mongers in the U.S. get offended at anything they are too stupid to understand. Example: You may find this explanation niggardly, but a moron in an inner-city public school administration would make a federal case out of it.
Actually, CDC has been very forthcoming about this. We know exactly how contagious it is.
We are not acting as if we know what to do about it-but we certainly are not covering anything up with regard to the extreme "contagiousness" of the SARS agent.
is that an imperial "we" or do you move in the CDC world?
A question I am still hoping to see an answer for:
What's the ratio of death to recovery (exclude the living afflicted -- we don't have, um, final resolution on those cases yet)?
I've seen this several times, but don't know the reference...
I've always assumed that this is just another in the series of PC New Think terms.
My Lord, Ford. . .
How would personal hygiene really matter if it's the flu? Clean people get the flu.
Breathing recycled air isn't safe ---it seems like we should go back to opening windows and trying to breathe fresh outside air.
BTW - Found this....
"Asian is now strongly preferred in place of Oriental for persons native to Asia or descended from an Asian people. The usual objection to Oriental—meaning “eastern”—is that it identifies Asian countries and peoples in terms of their location relative to Europe. However, this objection is not generally made of other Eurocentric terms such as Near and Middle Eastern. The real problem with Oriental is more likely its connotations stemming from an earlier era when Europeans viewed the regions east of the Mediterranean as exotic lands full of romance and intrigue, the home of despotic empires and inscrutable customs. At the least these associations can give Oriental a dated feel, and as a noun in contemporary contexts (as in the first Oriental to be elected from the district) it is now widely taken to be offensive. However, Oriental should not be thought of as an ethnic slur to be avoided in all situations. As with Asiatic, its use other than as an ethnonym, in phrases such as Oriental cuisine or Oriental medicine, is not usually considered objectionable."
....here. Not very substantive, but at least it's an explanation of sorts. Just don't see why other cultures would be offended by the way Europeans describe their location, but oh well...Asians it is.
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