[riri]

This can't be right, didn't some 180 people in one apartment complex just come down with it? That would make it far more like casual contact is spreading it. IMHO

I am growing suspicious. Why did this apartment building-complex get hit so hard, yet people flew on airplanes with people very ill with this sickness and only a few seem to have gotten ill. Any ideas out there on why this may be the case?

[TBall]

I read one article where they are looking to see if its in the water. I doubt it, but wouldn't that be a bitch if it could be spread by both water and air.

[LPStar]

Someone told me (I think he read it somewhere) that Hong Kong plumbing leaves something to be desired. Someone might hack up in their sink, and it lands in the sink below (yuck!). So that's a scenario for how SARS could spread in an apartment building. Makes me a little more reluctant to visit Asia.

[Prince Charles]

"I am growing suspicious. Why did this apartment building-complex get hit so hard, yet people flew on airplanes with people very ill with this sickness and only a few seem to have gotten ill. Any ideas out there on why this may be the case?"

Most airliners are ventilated in such a way that air enters at the front and is exhausted out near the back of the cabin. So, if a SARS carrier is seated near the back of the plane and doesn't get up in flight, most of his germs will flow out the back of the plane. If, OTOH, the SARS carrier is in 1st class, then his germs flow aft and contact everyone else sitting behind him. If someone breathes in enough virus particles (exact amount unknown right now) then they get SARS.

Bottom line: it all depends on air flow and seating arrangments.