Sars hits Africa

News 24 (South Africa) ^ | 5-11-03

[Prince Charles]

Sars hits Africa 11/05/2003 12:02  - (SA)  

Lagos - The death of an Asian man, who had travelled from Taiwan to Nigeria and had been showing symptoms of the Sars virus, has become the first suspected Sars death in Africa.

The government of the west African country have reported his death to the World Health Organisation, said Health Minister Alphonsus Nwosu on Saturday on State television.

"It is a suspected case. It has not yet been confirmed," said Nwosu.

The Asian man was showing symptoms of the highly infectious pneumonia-like virus and died later in a hospital.

WHO experts have dreaded the spread of the disease on the African continent as a lack of health facilities, a large population and poor living conditions would lead to the rapid spread of the virus.

With a population of about 120 million, Nigeria is Africa's most populous country. - Sapa-DPA

[Judith Anne]

Yes. I'm concerned by and a little leary of trying to draw conclusions without enough data here.

[aristeides]

I think Ivan T. indicated the victims in Toronto were largely Asian. Among places where the disease seems to have petered out, I was thinking of, besides Canada, the U.S. and India.

[per loin]

I'm unaware of any large outbreaks in either the US or India. In the US, virtually all the cases have been individuals coming in from infected areas, and quarantined or isolated here. The only possible cases of local transmission in India that I'm aware of were among the wedding party in Pune, and there is some doubt as to the specificity of the test being used by the National Institute of Virology in India.

Do you have a source for Ivan T's ethnic figures on Toronto?

[Judith Anne]

I think that when a potential pandemic is poised on the knife edge of breakout, there will be all kinds of conversations among people about who gets sick and who doesn't, whether or not those conversations have any basis in science.

I think that's fear talking...I think people will do anything that reassures them that they and their loved ones are safe.

There is no ethnicity or racial profiling in the common cold, imho, and that is a coronavirus.

[aristeides]

No, I don't have such a source. But I'm puzzled that you are so resistant to even the possibility that the disease might affect different groups differently. Granted, nothing I've mentioned comes close to constituting proof. But I do think it all constitutes mounting evidence.

Remember all the talk when AIDS was getting started about how it was going to affect everybody equally?

[aristeides]

There's already been one possible explanation for a differentiated response to SARS in different groups mentioned on a fairly recent thread. East Asian populations tend to have, to a greater degree than other populations, the receptors in their immune systems that may account for the immune overreaction that makes SARS such a serious disease.

[riri]

I'm unaware of any large outbreaks in either the US or India

And, the hardest hit state/area of the US, seems to be the bay area of California. Hugely Asian.

[per loin]

I'm hesitant to draw conclusions, even temporary ones, without adequate evidence, and I do not see adequate evidence here. That does not mean that I deny the possibility of some ethnic groups being particularly susceptible.

As for AIDS, I remember the early days of it spreading, when it was thought that Haitians were particularly susceptible. It turned out that the large number of Haitian cases were the result of American homosexual tourists using young Haitians as butt boys.

Until we have adequate data to analyze, guesses are just guesses, not informed ones.

[per loin]

Yes, Asians who had recently visited Asia, where the outbreaks are. I've not heard of any Asians coming back from Lithuania, Egypt, or Paraguay with the disease.

[per loin]

I think you are likely reading that correctly. We all want some kind of magical immunity.

[varon]

Our own people do not have fundamental manufactoring skills, infrastructure, or factories.

Oh yeah, but we have Hamburger Helper, so there ;-)

[riri]

Yes, Asians who had recently visited Asia, where the outbreaks are

Absolutely. So, it is almost impossible to make a inference in either direction.

[aristeides]

Neither-nor sent me a link to a story with the latest developments about the doctor in India who was found to have become infected with the SARS virus while in Malaysia. Fifty-four checked for SARS in Manipal. The doctor himself, although infected, never came down with any symptom beyond a mild fever, and is now perfectly healthy. Neither-nor informs me that there's no indication that any of his 54 contacts in India have come down with the disease. The course of the disease in India does look very different from its course in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore.

[per loin]

I wish more actual data were being released, but I reckon there are papers to be written, and careers to be advanced. Us curious folk just have to wait.

[SSN558]

"You need to work on differentiating actual science from nonsense like the above."

Is it not true that africans with the sickle cell trait are resistant to malaria ?

[per loin]

Yes, I saw that. Hard to figure just what is going on in India. They are now reporting this doctor as the only probable case that they have had so far. One thing confusing the situation is that a considerably large number of travelers normally come home with respiratory problems.

[riri]

Interesting also, I just read something about immunity and AIDS.

The first of these is a subtype of a protein designated GC. This protein is either f GC IF, GC IS or GC 2 variety. People with GC IF factor have a greatly increased susceptibility for the disease. One study, unrelated to AIDS research, found 58% of Central Africans had least one of the factors which causes greater susceptability as against a 16% occurence in Europeans studied. This is another indication that race (or possibly) ethnicity may play a part in disease vulnerability.

excerpted from AIDS A Second Opinion by Gary Null, PhD

Sort of unrelated. But showing this sort of thing does seem possible.

[stands2reason]

Arabs are Caucasian.

[Future Useless Eater]

>>The death of an Asian man, who had travelled from Taiwan to Nigeria and had been showing symptoms of the Sars virus, has become the first suspected Sars death in Africa.

But WHO has been reporting one DEATH from SARS in South
Africa for several days now.

http://www.who.int/csr/sarscountry/2003_05_10/en/

[Walkingfeather]

Sorry but the virus is mutating to such a degree that if you get it once and survive, you can get it again... and maybe not survive. I am not aware of any such immunity in relation to sars... may be out there but I haven't read it. Plus if you do survive SARS your lungs are so scarred that they become very ineffective, from what I read.