Posted on 05/12/2003 3:51:58 AM PDT by per loin
'Super-spreaders' of Sars are elderly: WHO
The make up of extremely infectious patients of the SARS virus, known as "super-spreaders," is becoming clearer, with many
appearing to be the elderly or those already suffering medical ailments, a World Health Organization official said Monday.
"Super spreaders" of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome are a handful of carriers who have infected 10 or more people, often
family members and medical workers treating them.
They are seen as a key link in the transmission of the respiratory disease.
"We are getting more and more information on 'super spreaders' and it appears that they are mainly elderly people who have already
been immunologically compromised," Mangai Balasegaram, a WHO spokeswoman in Beijing told AFP.
The "viral load," or the concentration of the virus in the carrier, has appeared to be higher in elderly people, especially if
they are already afflicted by some other ailment, like diabetes or kidney problems, she said.
"A high viral load has appeared to make these people more infectious ..., it is also more detrimental to the health of these
people," she added.
Last week, the WHO raised its estimate of the SARS fatality rate to about 15 percent - and higher in the elderly, where it can be
fatal to over 50 percent of those aged 60 or more.
A 72-year-old Beijing man is believed to be the "super spreader" that led to SARS taking hold in northern China, including Beijing,
Inner Mongolia and possibly in subsequent epidemics in neighboring Tianjin and Hebei province.
The man got SARS after visiting his niece in a Hong Kong hospital in March and spread it to nine Hong Kong tourists, three
Taiwanese businessmen, a Singaporean woman, two Chinese government officials and two stewardesses, on a March 15, CA 112 flight.
He then infected a whole group of Beijing medical workers as he was transferred to three different hospitals before he died on
March 20, according to SARS infection tracing data compiled by China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention and given to the
WHO.
The two stewardesses eventually came down with SARS, but were only diagnosed after they returned to their homes in Inner
Mongolia, where they have been linked to many of the 288 SARS cases there.
An 82-year-old woman has been identified as the main source of infection of more than 50 SARS cases in Beijing's east, the hardest
hit area of the capital that has been reeling from the disease with 2,304 cases and 129 deaths.
The women, named Li Jiecui, had spent two months in Hong Kong prior to being hospitalized at the Dongzhimen hospital on March 21,
where she died.
The hospital has been quarantined for weeks.
A 64-year old Chinese doctor named Liu Jianlun, Hong Kong's first recorded and most famous SARS case, is believed to have
infected 13 guests at Hong Kong's Metropole Hotel in late February and was seen as the "index case" of what eventually became a global
epidemic.
Those 13 guests went on to infect people in Vietnam, Singapore, Germany, Canada and Hong Kong, according to the Center for Disease
Control in the United States.
Liu was from China's southern Guangdong province where SARS was first discovered in November. He died in a Hong Kong hospital on
February 23.
Not all of the super-spreaders have been elderly though.
The man who caused the SARS cluster that spread to over 300 people in the Hong Kong apartment complex, Amoy Gardens, in late
March was only 33, but was being given drugs for a kidney disease that had suppressed his immune system, Balasegaram said.
Afflicted with diarrhea, a known SARS symptom, the man apparently transmitted the disease through the sewage system of the apartment complex.
A 26-year-old stewardess infected more than 100 people in Singapore, including her parents who both succumbed to the disease.
And in another Hong Kong cluster, a 26-year-old Chinese man gave the disease to 112 doctors, nurses and medical students in a local
hospital.
AFP
The two stewardesses were young, <35 years old, and I would doubt they had any underlying diseases. Unlike United Airlines, where all of the international stewardesses (or is that no longer a correct term?) are between 55 and 65 years old, all of the Chinese carriers have young, healthy ladies.
The man who caused the SARS cluster that spread to over 300 people in the Hong Kong apartment complex, Amoy Gardens, in late March was only 33, but was being given drugs for a kidney disease that had suppressed his immune system, Balasegaram said.
Taking drugs for a ... disease that had suppressed his immune system....this agrees with what I thought earlier--those taking steroids and other medications that suppress the immune system for various conditions and diseases can be superspreaders, in my opinion because they don't look as sick as soon as others, and may have a higher viral load before they show SARS symptoms...
Many, if not most, journalists are more comfortable with the anecdote than with stats. Verbal folk. Makes for lots of statistical garble.
The young women in Singapore that was a super spreader was 28 years old.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.