[EternalHope]

Really? I thought virii could survive 10000+ years as well as in space.

The typical common cold virus lasts from 2 to 4 hours when exposed to air outside the body. Some viruses may be as hardy as you describe (don't know), but nothing I have seen puts SARS in that category.

I suspect you are thinking of the bugs that form extremely hardy spores. So far, nothing has indicated that SARS forms spores.

[riri]

You may find this interesting.

My husband is a controller for a mid size public company. They have subsidaries in Singapore and Japan. They have just begun outsourcing some products to China and trying to break into the Chinese market.

Well, yesterday he had a meeting probably regarding earnings, I am not entirely sure of the content. My husband said just about every slide contained something about SARS.

So, the topic turned to SARS and one of the head honcho guys who travels to Asia frequently said he had been ill when he last returned (over a month ago) and he was concerned because he never gets sick. I guess it was not SARS cause he is still kicking and he's an old fart. But he kept this all to himself.

Then the general consensus was, "Well we can't stop sending peple to China forever, eventually someone has got to go"...

No earth shattering news here, I just thought it was interesting to note.

[blam]

"The typical common cold virus lasts from 2 to 4 hours when exposed to air outside the body. Some viruses may be as hardy as you describe (don't know), but nothing I have seen puts SARS in that category."

Didn't we have a article a day or so ago about SARS still being contagious after sitting on a surface for 24+ hours? I think so.

[forewarning]

So far, nothing has indicated that SARS forms [long-lived] spores.

Yes -- some bacteria form spores, viruses don't.