Scientists confident of SARS link {SARS spread by cockroaches!}

The Baltimore Sun ^ | 11 April 2003 | Julie Bell

[Vigilant1]

Evidence of new virus found in stool samples, journal report says

Scientists working to identify the cause of a mysterious respiratory illness that has killed 111 people worldwide are now almost certain that it is associated with a new kind of coronavirus, a family of viruses also responsible for the common cold. One of two groups of scientists whose findings were published online yesterday in separate New England Journal of Medicine articles also said they had found genetic evidence of the virus in some victims' stool samples.

The finding lends support to a previously advanced theory that the virus might spread via cockroaches that have had contact with sewage, said Dr. Peter B. Jahrling, a U.S. Army virologist whose Fort Detrick laboratory is working to find drugs that might be effective against the infection.

[Nita Nupress]

Okay, now that you've unnerved us with the Fecal Fountain Factor, how do you turn off the water without touching something that has been contaminated? Do we all need to become like Howard Hughes?

No, but you need to be aware of what you're touching.  Turn off the water with a paper towel, or better yet, carry one of those tiny alcohol gel containers.  They make them pocket-size now.

And about opening the door to leave:  If you're really smart, you'll piddle around until some ignorant sap opens the door for you so you won't have to touch the handle.  Think of all the E.coli on that handle from ignorant saps who just wiped and then didn't wash.  Yuck.

[Nita Nupress]

Before I could get out of the bathroom I saw glowing specks everywhere in the bathroom from ceiling to floor. Thousands and thousands.

What a story!  That makes me want to experiment with it myself. LOL!

[Ronin]

Will the fear of SARS override the environmentalist's decrees?

You're kidding, right?

Hell, the environmentalists will be cheering for the cockroaches. As long as they, personally, don't get offed, the average environmentalist has no problems with any disease that kills humans.

Haven't you heard? We are the plague that threatens the "biosphere". We are the source of all that is evil in the universe.

The tree-huggers would rather we all died than resort to nasty chemicals like DDT.

[CJ Wolf]

Oh and I never wash my hands, I do bite my nails and stick my head close to the toliet to watch the crap swirl down. (looks jawdropingly cool to me and where does it go?) The toliet at work has amazingly quick suction and a nice backsplash, I sit when I flush there, just to get a bit of the biday action.

[Brian S]

Just to note: My dogs are vaccinated yearly for some type of coronavirus.

[Lijahsbubbe]

I still eat at fast food places, but sometimes when the grossness overwhelms me I pass.

If you think about it all, you will become a recluse. We haven't even touched on washing off the tops of canned goods, beaches, or swimming pools.

The human body is just gross. It reminds me of when Jerry Seinfeld talked about maintaining the body. Shaving, washing, clipping etc. Too funny. You have to laugh.

[Lijahsbubbe]

My children will not use public restrooms. When my daughter was a teenager she was a cashier and kept a bottle of hand sanitizer on the counter! (makes me proud)

[B-Chan]

A dear relative of mine is a "germie". She won't eat off restaurant silverware, brings her own sheets and pillows when staying anywhere but at home, is constantly washing her hands, and is obsessed with how filthy and septic the world is.

She gets sick more than anyone I know.

I apprecaite hygiene as much as anybody else (and more so than many), but there's a line between hygiene and obsessive-compulsive behavior. Yes, public bathrooms are filthy, yes my toothbrush is a teeming bacerial hive, yes I'm eating a mouthful of pubic hair and skin flakes every time I have a meal in a restaurant. -- and so what? I almost never get sick, and when I do its invariably because of stress, the kind of stress that comes from working too hard, exercising too little, or worrying about how many viruses and pubic hairs I ate today.

I'm a big fan of cleanlness, but this kind of paranoia about a world teeming with germs will kill you, or drive you crazy, or both. I observe the rules of good hygiene, but I'll be darned if I'm going to go around in a surgical mask spraying doorknobs with DDT for fear of having my precious bodily fluids contaminated. If there's some genetic residue soaked into the sheets in a hotel room in which I'm staying, it won't kill me. If the elevator button I just pushed has a thin film of feces from the too-busy-to-wash executive who used the elevator before me, somehow I'll survive. If the food I eat at the rstaurant is contaminated with semen and Ebola, I trust that my mighty immune system will rise to the task. God will preserve me. May His will be done. Now let's eat.

A life lived in fear isn't life at all. I know public santitation is terribly bad, but I refuse to worry myself about it. If I die from hep as a result, then I die -- but I'd rather die that way than spend a lifetime terrified of the germs, the Germs, THE GERMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A healthy interest in cleanliness is a good thing. An obsession with cleanliness is itself a pathological state. Let's not play that game.

[Dog Gone]

The toliet at work has amazingly quick suction and a nice backsplash, I sit when I flush there, just to get a bit of the bidet action.

LOL, been there, done that. I thought I was gonna drown.

[Nita Nupress]

I have gotten to the point where my two year old leaves somewhere and he says "hands?" and puts out his hands waiting for the gel...talk about neurotic.

LOL! No, it's not neurotic. Once you learn about this stuff, it just makes you be more cautious.

[tutstar]

Great!! just great...

[tutstar]

ping

[Lijahsbubbe]

I had to spray myself with sanitizer after reading that!

[Nita Nupress]

A healthy interest in cleanliness is a good thing. An obsession with cleanliness is itself a pathological state.

You're absolutely right. Furthermore, an obsession with anything is itself a pathological state. Everything in life is on a continuum. :-)

[lizma]

LOL! Sounds like a plan, a good one!

[lizma]

I sit when I flush there, just to get a bit of the biday action.

LOL. You'd love the toilet seats in Japan. Heated with a wash and dry cycle.

Japan has evolved from the absolute worse toilets on the planet (handlebars and a hole) to some of the best.

[Lael]

So, where do you stand (or sit) on this issue?

Back at the turn of the 20th Century, in places like New York, Philadelphia, etc., NO ONE had to "clean" the inside of a toilet bowl...each flush was 20 Gallons of fresh water.

Now, with 1.6, significant nitrates and other Nutrients are left even after flushing twice.

Just thought you would like to know.

[Southflanknorthpawsis]

Thanks a lot, Amelia. ; *)

[Vigilant1]

s:
"All other reports link the spread to coughing. It is, after all, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. This article might be cockroach do-do."

The only 'do-do' here is the false assumption you made about what you read. The article says cockroaches are another vector to spread SARS, not the only vector. It makes perfect sense that the virus would be present in fecal material of an infected person, and cockroaches could pick it up from that and spread it.

[samtheman]

Flu and colds are also spread by contacting the virus on your hands and then touching your mouth or eyes. By all means, wash your hands often, whether you're around SARS or not.

But this cockroach poop theory strikes me a bit like the early days of AIDS and a now-discredited theory of a mosquito vector.

SARS is much more contagious than AIDS, and I have no doubt that you can get it from not washing your hands, but I predict that people will continue to get SARS from close proximity to other people with SARS and we won't have any cases of the disease "wandering off on its own", just as we don't with AIDS.