Posted on 04/22/2003 7:49:22 AM PDT by EternalHope
Microbiologist: SARS now attacking intestines
April 23 2003
The deadly SARS virus is now attacking the intestines as well as the respiratory system, a leading Hong Kong microbiologist said yesterday.
Speaking on Hong Kong radio station RTHK, Professor Malik Peiris of Hong Kong University said the change might indicate the virus had mutated, as many experts feared.
Professor Peiris is one of the microbiologists at the forefront of the Hong Kong research into the SARS virus, which killed another five people in the territory yesterday, bringing the total number of deaths to 99.
His comments come amid growing concern that the virus is becoming more virulent, with many doctors noting changes in the way the disease behaves and whom it kills.
A number of deaths over the past week have occurred in younger, previously healthy people - one being a 34-year-old pregnant women.
An increasing number of those infected with SARS are now suffering from diarrhoea. As many of two thirds of the residents who contracted SARS in the outbreak at the Amoy Gardens high-rise had diarrhoea, according to health officials.
Tom Buckley, the head of the intensive care unit at Hong Kong's Princess Margaret Hospital, said organ failure was also now becoming more common.
"Initially patients were presenting with just respiratory failure," Dr Buckley said. "Now we're seeing renal failure and other organ failure."
Hong Kong recorded 32 new infections yesterday - 10 more than Monday - taking the total to 1434. The latest deaths were all of people over the age 65, with four having an history of chronic illness.
Announcing the latest figures, health secretary E K Yeoh said he believed SARS would not go away and the Government had to concentrate on controlling it.
"We do not anticipate that it will be eradicated completely because this virus is highly infectious," he said. "So our primary task is to reduce the size of the viral load in the community and prevent outbreaks."
DPA
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/22/1050777263907.html
Chinese drink more tea than that. :-)
Poor guy's name looks like an unfortunate typo.
Isn't zithromax an anti-viral med? My Dr gave it to me when I had the flu. The anti-viral's may not be as dependable or work the same way as antibiotics, but we do use them.
There are natural anti-virals out there, but most people just don't know about them. It takes lots of reading, digging and an open mind.
g
There is zero evidence for that.
If you wish to believe it as a matter of religious conviction, be my guest.
This is a Coronavirus. They mutate constantly, that is why we have never been able to develop a vaccine for the common cold. This one is more lethal than any in memory, but given the hundreds of new varients that appear every year, it was inevitable.
There has never been any indication that any nation was incompetent enough to use a Coronavirus as the precursor of a bioweapon, precisely because it mutates wildly.
There is no way you can hope to vaccinate and protect your own troops and population.
So9
Another one is Oil of Oregano. Not the Mexican sage that is passed off as seasoning and called "oregano". This is the more expensive wild mountain-grown oregano from the Mediterranean.
g
If I remember the book correctly, Robert Preston explained why a really hideous disease could not spread too far. Such a virus is too efficient. It kills of its host before the host has much contact with others. Very often, for the disease to spread very far, it would become less lethal.
He also brought out the problem with plane travel. Take a plane full of people who become infected on the way from Africa to Rome, for instance. Those people then get on other planes. Within one day, that virus could spread all over the world.
My concern, which doesn't seem to get an answer, is what happens if SARS starts spreading in countries where health and sanitary services have been affected by war? What if this thing gets into refugee camps? What if soldiers get it? Will they be quarantined where they are? If this were to start spreading in Afghanistan and Iraq, what could possibly be done?
I really hope someone has contingency plans if this did occur.
You still might be willing to use it if you're in a Goetterdaemmerung mood, as Hitler was in April 1945.
Correct. Simple reason - virii aren't alive; that is, they don't respire; that is, they don't take anything (including antibiotics) in from the environment. They don't do anything at all until they come in contact with a glycoprotein trigger on the surface of a cell, then they inject the infective agent - DNA or RNA - into the target cell.
About all you can do is sensitize the immune system to build antibodies faster than the virii can replicate. Inoculation does that by building a cell line already active against a particular antigen. Pumping up the mechanism of the immune system also helps - Vitamin C, for starters, and a host of other things. All antibiotics will do is protect the body from a secondary, bacterial infection.
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