Touching a door is enough to catch Sars virus

The Times ^ | May 5, 2003 | Nigel Hawkes

[MadIvan]

IT MAY be possible to catch the Sars virus simply by touching a contaminated table top, lift button, or doorknob, rather than being directly exposed to the sneeze or cough of a patient, scientists believe.

Experiments show that Sars can survive for at least 24 hours on surfaces, and for several days in human waste. The data, due to be published on the World Health Organisation website, helps to explain how Sars has infected some patients without direct contact.

Studies in Germany have found that ordinary detergents are ineffective against the virus, while Japanese laboratories have found that it can survive indefinitely at freezing point.

“ Klaus Stohr, a scientist with WHO’s communicable disease surveillance and response team, said evidence is emerging that the virus can survive as long as four days in the diarrhoea of infected patients. This is seen as a clue to the outbreak in a 33-storey apartment block in Amoy Gardens, Hong Kong. A man with Sars visited the block and used his brother’s lavatory. Investigators found a tiny crack in a sewage pipe in the block and speculated that droplets that became airborne from the leak could have contaminated the air.

Many Chinese have long suspected that Sars could be spread via hard surfaces and have taken various precautions. In Hong Kong, cleaners in many skyscrapers are sticking clear plastic over the buttons in lifts and changing them every hour to minimize infection risk.

Globally, according to WHO, Sars has infected 6,234 people and killed 435.

[MadIvan]

Uh oh.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Bump!

[Jewels1091]

Time to start wearing platic gloves along with the masks...that might help.

[Travis McGee]

Carrying light canes for pushing buttons and doors etc might also be an idea worth considering in infected areas.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

Now they find out the virus has a indeterminate shelf life from hours, days, weeks, months????

No Chinese goods of any sort for me, period. There are too many things remaining unknown here to be a thrill seeker and ignore some damning possibilities that may be lurking.

I want some hard facts on the matter to base decisions upon.

I also have a jaundiced eye cast on Canadian goods, of course for more than just the SARS thingy.

Now I may be a bit paranoid, but damn. Is SARS not a terrorist's dream weapon waiting to be launched, if it has not already been? The fear factor alone has proven paralyzing around the world.

[gcruse]

I'm going in Tuesday to
have myself vacuum sealed.

[montag813]

IT MAY be possible to catch the Sars virus simply by touching a contaminated table top, lift button, or doorknob, rather than being directly exposed to the sneeze or cough of a patient, scientists believe.

This is true of staph and strep (bacterial) infections as well. ATM machines and elevator buttons are notorious. Wash you hands after after every period of contact with others; scratch your nose with your forearm and not your fingers, and do not put your fingers in your ear or eyes, and you will get through most years without a single cold.

[gcruse]

Now they find out the virus has a indeterminate shelf life from hours, days, weeks, months????

If it is frozen, yeah.  Otherwise a day or two.
So imports aren't dangerous to handle.

The fear factor alone has proven paralyzing around the world.

Well, it does seem to have your number.
Oh, and, "It's better to live on your knees that die on your feet." -- Nately's whore's grandfather (Catch-22)

[buffyt]

Good idea! LOL vacuum sealing yourself.

I worry more about dying in a car wreck, than from SARS!

Have you seen the way I drive? I barely step on the gas pedal and that darn Porsche Carerra just about achieves lift off.

Honest, officer, can I help it if I have a really fast car?????

[buffyt]

They did a study and showed the results on TV. They tested service station restrooms, door handles at stores, offices, hospitals. They found the most germs on the handle of shopping carts at grocery stores. And I see little kids riding the the carts, leaning over and chewing on those handles. Plus, they put their hands all over the handle and then right into their mouths. We now come home and wash our hands as soon as we are finished grocery shopping.

[husky ed]

What about touching a blue dress?

Oh yeah, just a couple of questions on TV and the Congress hushing it up as fast as possible.

[twntaipan]

This article leaves out a few details. The researchers indicate that though they have demonstrated that the SARS causing virus can survive on surfaces, it is not yet known how much of the virus is needed to contract the disease. So while a sneeze droplet does, or feces does, the research is not yet clear as to how much from touching surfaces containing the virus would be enough to infect you.

If a single touch of very little virus is enough, then all of Asia would already be sick with it--and all of Asia is not sick with SARS (WHO and CDC reports notwithstanding).

A far more contagious disease exists than SARS: FEAR, and it is doing more damage to economies and lives than SARS has.

[gcruse]

LOL

[Victoria Delsoul]

Many Chinese have long suspected that Sars could be spread via hard surfaces and have taken various precautions. In Hong Kong, cleaners in many skyscrapers are sticking clear plastic over the buttons in lifts and changing them every hour to minimize infection risk.

Nevertheless, the Chinese government had instructed its media to play down reports on Sars in order to avoid losing business and tourism as well as to prevent panic. Moreover, they tried to cover up the Sars epidemic for six month and had a few hundred deaths before a whistleblower spilled the beans on them. Only then, the government started changing the way it had been dealing with the problem. Now, what started in China late last year has spread around the world and there is no way to stop it yet.

[follow the money]

Scientific studies found the virus can survive for at least 24 hours on a plastic surface at room temperature, and can live for extended periods in the cold, the studies found.

[follow the money]

Stop all TRADE with China now

[follow the money]

Mounting SARS death toll triggers speculation of bio-weapon link
Agence France-Presse
Beijing, May 1

The mounting death toll exacted by SARS in China has triggered speculation that the virus could ultimately be traced back to a leak from military bio-weapon programmes.
Although most reporting favours a natural origin for SARS, a bio-weapon link should at least not be ruled out, according to Richard Fisher, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington-based think tank.

"While there is no reported evidence that SARS is indeed a weapon, there are plenty of ways that a real weapon with the properties of SARS could prove decisive in a military conflict," he said.

China's most famous dissident, the exiled Wei Jingsheng, in an opinion piece this week cited rumours circulating in China, such as the idea "that SARS emanated from China's biological weapons research facilities."

Without explicitly dismissing the possibility, Wei noted in the piece, published in the International Herald Tribune, that Chinese President Hu Jintao had visited a bio-military research facility to dampen the rumours.

Many analysts consider a link between Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and bio-weapons far-fetched, citing the lack of any evidence to support it.

"This speculation is pretty baseless," said Stephanie Lieggi, an East Asia expert at the California-based Centre for Nonproliferation Studies.

"I have seen nothing in recent reports that would support any connection between SARS and biological weapons," she said.

No known biological weapon has all the properties so far associated with SARS.

But rough parallels - deadly viruses that reproduce and spread through a human population by multiple means - do exist, according to analysts.

The main argument against the theory is the low kill ratio associated with SARS, as more than 90 per cent of those struck by the virus seem to recover.

And although it is transmitted relatively easily, it seems to be less contagious than most known viral bio-weapons, according to experts.

But it is exactly the innocuous nature of SARS that could make it militarily useful for someone wanting to sow panic and prompt political instability, Fisher argued.

"A seemingly 'natural' epidemic would lessen suspicion of the main 'enemy state' by the target country and its main allies," he said.

"With that target government increasingly preoccupied by a major health crisis, it would then be distracted from other possible threats, thus increasing the chances an outside attack could succeed," he said.

The theory that SARS was a leaked weapon would depend on the existence of an offensive biological weapon programme in China, and not just a defensive effort aimed at protection from foreign attack.

According to US intelligence sources, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) does have an offensive program, although it appears to have been scaled down over the past two decades.

The Institute of Military Medicine near Beijing has been engaged at least in defensive research, while some other biotechnology facilities could have both civilian and military uses.

One crucial but unknown factor is the role played by biological weapons in China's military doctrine.

Overseas analysts simply do not know for sure whether China envisages the use of biological weapons in future wars.

Strategic planners in China are fascinated by the concept of "asymmetrical warfare", which facilitates victory over a stronger enemy, such as the United States, by hitting it where it is relatively weak.

Much of this research is believed to focus on high-technology capabilities such as satellite jamming, rather than biological weapons.

However, the exact thinking of the higher rungs inside the PLA remains obscure to the outside world, leaving several possibilities open.

"In the absence of clear knowledge of PLA doctrine in this area, one can presume that the PLA at a minimum maintains a stock of bioweapons for retaliation purposes," said Fisher.

[SendShaqtoIraq]

Another reason that public restrooms should still be REQUIRED to provide paper towels.