Super-spreaders fan SARS fears

Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | 4-26-03 | M.A.J. McKENNA

[Prince Charles]

"There is information out there to show that virus is shed for a very long time by some people -- weeks as opposed to days," said Dr. Robert Webster of St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, an internationally known virologist who was asked to consult on SARS by the government of Hong Kong. "Some of the people in the Amoy Gardens estate were moved out into quarantine [for 10 days], and then allowed to go back to work, and found to be still shedding virus."

Typhoid Marys, one and all.

[per loin]

"Some of the people in the Amoy Gardens estate were moved out into quarantine [for 10 days], and then allowed to go back to work, and found to be still shedding virus."

Not enough info here. Were they tested at the beginning of the 10 days, or could they have caught it while in quarantine? And if they were shedding virus at the beginning, why were they put into a camp with many others?

[Prince Charles]

Good questions; my take is that the article implies they were tested after they left quarantine.

[per loin]

If that the case, then Webster errs in using this as evidence of extended shedding.

[blam]

This hints that HIV/AIDS carriers could be 'super-spreaders', huh?

Have there been any cases that we know of that were HIV/AIDS carriers and then got SARS?

[Prince Charles]

Not that I know of.

BTW, they should come up with a different name than "Super-Spreaders" -- it sounds too much like the magazine section of the Clinton presidential library.

[dc-zoo]

LOL!! I'm bustin' a gut here.

[Judith Anne]

They could call them Index Patients with a number posted after, for all the people they infect, and another number for when they appeared on a timeline starting, say Feb. 1, 2003.

Like, for instance, Index Patient #45-1 Or Index Patient #82-7

It seems that each of the Index Patients are at the core of a group of cases, and they don't all appear at once...

Just a thought.

[blam]

"BTW, they should come up with a different name than "Super-Spreaders" -- it sounds too much like the magazine section of the Clinton presidential library."

You come up with a new name, I'll use it.

[BenLurkin]

How about "Godzilla Germs"?

[Prince Charles]

That would work if/when it hits Japan... how about Hong Kong Fluey, or Egg Flu Lung?

[Prince Charles]

Lemme think about it....

[Prince Charles]

That would make sense -- and it might make it easy at a glance to see where mutations sprouted.

[blam]

"They could call them Index Patients with a number posted after, for all the people they infect, and another number for when they appeared on a timeline starting, say Feb. 1, 2003."

Flu geneology. Neat idea. Let's see how that would work, like this, I was infected and died by 10,003-160,000. Something like that?

[Prince Charles]

Here's another interesting twist from Sunday's Irish Independent:

Another mystery bug kills 38 children in Vietnam

AN unidentified illness - which health officials say does not appear to be linked to SARS - has killed 38 children and sickened more than 60 others in 17 Vietnamese provinces during the past three months, state-controlled media reported yesterday.Doctors and medical experts, along with the World Health Organization, completed an epidemiology survey in Ho Chi Minh City on April 15. They did not classify the illnesses as an outbreak because the cases did not appear to be linked and were scattered throughout many provinces, the newspaper said.

All the children who succumbed to the disease experienced symptoms of high fever and convulsion. Nearly 70 per cent died within a day of becoming sick. The disease is suspected of being part of the enterovirus group, the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City said.

[Judith Anne]

Something like that...but you're right, it would certainly break down in a pandemic.

[Judith Anne]

So very sad...

[Ciexyz]

Scary.

[Judith Anne]

So, we're supposed to come up with a new name for SARS?

What about Lung Dung?