Posted on 05/02/2003 12:52:02 PM PDT by CathyRyan
Scientists have confirmed the genomes of two different strains of the virus thought to be responsible for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which has so far claimed 391 lives worldwide. As part of an international endeavor to stop the spread of SARS, most of the data had previously been made public as soon as it became available. Now independent researchers have reviewed the genetic sequences. Two papers describing the findings were released yesterday by the journal Science. Researchers hope that knowledge of the full virus genome will help efforts to contain the disease by aiding development of diagnostic tests, therapies or vaccines.
An international team led by Paul A. Rota of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sequenced a strain of the virus recovered from the respiratory tract of a patient who died from the disease after contracting it in Hanoi. The analysis of this so-called Urbani strain confirmed that the virus belongs to the coronavirus family and that it is "distinct from all known coronoviruses," says study co-author Steven Oberste of the CDC. The genome of this strain has the same overall structure as that of the three currently recognized classes of coronavirus, but there were significant differences in the amino acid structures of individual proteins. "Unfortunately," Oberste notes, "the new analysis doesn't tell us a lot about the origins of the virus."
The second genomic sequence was completed by a group of Canadian researchers led by Marco A. Marra of the British Columbia Cancer Agency Genome Sciences Center. They analyzed the 29,751 bases that make up the genome of a viral strain taken from a patient in Toronto, the city hardest-hit by SARS outside of Asia. According to Mark Pallansch of the CDC, the two genomes are very similar despite coming from two distant locales. Notes Barry R. Bloom of the Harvard School of Public Health in an accompanying editorial, "the lesson here is that it is time to support an international war on disease."
Of particular interest to researchers hoping to develop new methods of treatment for SARS are the sections of the genome responsible for protein production. Both collaborations identified genes for four proteins essential to the virus's ability to enter host cells and replicate. But questions remain over whether the virus acts alone in causing the disease. Frank Plummer, the science director general of Health Canada's National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg, told an international conference on SARS in Toronto that the new coronavirus has only been detected in 40 percent of the people who have SARS in Canada. Furthermore, specimens from 14 percent of patients under observation because they have potentially been exposed to the disease--but who do not meet the clinical case definition of SARS--have been found to contain the mysterious virus. --
It's possible that the existence of another virus makes the symptoms worse, but I think we found the primary culprit.
No. I've seen the sequences. They are the same virus.
If you have a bunch
of data which contradicts
a theory, and one
thing which supports it,
doubt is reasonably cast
on the one datum.
Who knows? Rotterdam
may have had sloppy workers,
or been ambitious,
or they may have been
feeling political heat
to confirm the bug.
I'm inclined to trust
Canada over Europe,
but who really knows?
What is Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome, commonly called simply: ARDS? What ARDS is not. What are the phases/stages of ARDS?
Adult (or Acute) Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) is a medical condition which prevents the normal breathing process from taking place. ARDS occurs when there is severe inflammation in both lungs resulting in an inability of the lungs to function properly. ARDS is a devastating, often fatal, inflammatory lung condition that usually occurs in conjunction with catastrophic medical conditions, such as pneumonia, shock, sepsis (or severe infection throughout the body, sometimes also referred to as systemic infection, and may include or also be called a blood or blood-borne infection), and trauma. It is a form of sudden and often severe lung failure. Lung failure means that the lungs can no longer carry out their normal function of getting oxygen into the blood and removing carbon dioxide from the body.
Can someone get ARDS more than once?
We are aware and have people in our care and support network who have been diagnosed with ARDS more than once. [!] To date, we have not seen anyone who has been diagnosed more than twice. Further, so far this has been a very rare occurrence. Also, we are unaware at this time of any scientifically or medically valid reason why someone may not have ARDS hit more than once if appropriate precipitating condition(s) once again arise. The body is very complex, and much about ARDS remains a mystery; but if the body has reacted in a way as to have ARDS arise once, the body might well do so again if the same or similar conditions arise in the future.
Survival and Mortality (death)?
The mortality (death) rate estimates range from 30 percent to 70 percent. [!?!] Recent data suggests that on average more than 40 percent die from ARDS. This data accounts for direct deaths resulting from not recovering from ARDS. The data does not account for deaths among survivors which may be causally related due to medical conditions arising or effected by the encounter with ARDS. ...
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