Breaking News: World Alert on Mystery Disease (Broke 1 Hour Ago in Australia)

This story already broke. Whazzupwitdat 90% fatality rate? Didn't see that in the article.

Everybody, go slow with this Breaking News stuff, Spend five minutes checking your facts. You'll spend 400% more time than the major networks.

With hostilities imminent it behooves all of us to supress rumors and stick to what is based on fact.

I read the transcript. Not much information there. I wouldn't expect it given the short period of time that they have been working the problem. It would be good news (I think) if you had to have prolonged contact with an affected patient in order to acquire the disease. It would be bad news if they can't figure out an effective treatment in a timely manner.

Should we call Maulder and Scully?8-)Couldn't resist it.

Very scary.

Thank you for this post

Release the four mighty demons held bound at the great River Euphrates

france, germany, russia, china

5:31PM

Asian outbreak may be new strain of flu or exotic virus

By EMMA ROSS

AP Medical Writer

A deadly, mysterious respiratory illness spread largely among health care workers in Asia could be a new strain of flu or even an exotic virus passed from animals to people, a health official said Sunday.
Probably the most feared by health experts, however, would be a new and deadly strain of flu.

The illness, which carries flu-like symptoms, has killed nine people - seven in Asia and two in North America. Its rapid spread in southeast Asia in recent weeks caused a rare worldwide health alert to be issued on Saturday.
Health officials say it may be several more days before they are able to identify the disease. However, they said several of its features suggest it is caused by a virus, which can often be difficult to pinpoint quickly using standard lab tests.

"Certainly influenza is on the minds of many people," said Dr. David Heymann, communicable diseases chief for the World Health Organization.

Lab tests have ruled out some varieties of flu as well as some viruses that cause hemorrhagic fever. However, many other possibilities remain, Heymann said.

Those include "a new strain of influenza" or such exotic diseases as the closely related Hendra and Nipah viruses - both newly recognized, causing flu-like symptoms and capable of being spread from animals to people.
"If it really is the flu, it could be we have a new organism that could cause a pandemic," said Dr. R. Bradley Sack, director of Johns Hopkins' international travel clinic. "People immediately start thinking of 1917," the year a worldwide flu epidemic killed at least 20 million people.

Experts discounted the possibility that terrorism is the source and believe it almost certainly is a contagious infection that spreads most easily from victims to their doctors, nurses and families through coughing, sneezing and other contact with nasal fluids.
"Nothing about that pattern suggests bioterrorism," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Officials said they are encouraged that some recent victims seem to be recovering, although they are unsure whether that is because of the many antibiotic and antiviral drugs they have been given or simply the natural course of the disease.

Heymann said three or four patients had stabilized enough to be moved out of intensive care Sunday in Hanoi, Vietnam, although all still had breathing problems.
The illness is being called "severe acute respiratory syndrome," or SARS. The incubation period appears to be three to seven days. It often begins with a high fever and other flu-like symptoms, such as headache and sore throat. Victims typically develop coughs, pneumonia, shortness of breath and other breathing difficulties. Death results from respiratory failure.
The World Health Organization has been aware of the outbreak for about three weeks but issued its global alert this weekend because of concern that the illness would spread to North America and Europe.

The WHO estimates that perhaps 500 people in all have been sickened if an earlier outbreak that peaked last month in Guangdong province in China turns out to be part of the same disease, as they suspect it is.

Ninety percent of the most recent cases have been in health care workers.

The CDC prepared cards that were being given to travelers arriving from Hanoi, Hong Kong or Guangdong province in China, warning they may have been exposed. It recommended they see a doctor if they get a fever accompanied by a cough or difficulty breathing over the next week.

Investigators suspect a virus is involved, because victims do not seem to respond well to standard antibiotics, which kill only bacteria, and because their white blood counts drop. That typically happens with viral infections but not bacterial ones.

Few drugs exist for treating viral diseases and often they must run their course until brought under control by the body's natural immune defenses.

Tests so far have ruled out the H5N1 bird flu, which has popped up occasionally in China and which many fear could be catastrophic if it spread widely among humans.
No cases have been confirmed in the United States, but Gerberding said the CDC is checking out a few calls. The North American fatalities were a woman and her grown son who died in Toronto after visiting Hong Kong.

A 32-year-old physician from Singapore suspected of having the disease was taken off an airliner during a stopover in Frankfurt, Germany, on Saturday after being in New York City for a medical conference. He was held in quarantine, along with his mother, who had a fever, and his wife, who remained healthy.

However, on Sunday, the man's physician, Dr. Hanns-Reinhardt Brodt, said he was uncertain the case was SARS; he was treating him for ordinary pneumonia.

Also on Sunday, the WHO released a report from the China Ministry of Health on the Guangdong outbreak, which said "the epidemic situation has been controlled and the patients are being cured one by one."

In that outbreak, the Chinese said, most victims were young adults, and the disease apparently was spread similarly to SARS. The outbreak peaked between Feb. 3 and 14 in Guangzhou City and has since decreased markedly.

The Chinese said 7 percent of patients required breathing tubes, but most eventually got better, especially if they were not also infected with bacteria. The disease seemed to weaken as it passed from person to person.

You are most cordially welcome.

As Movement said above, there is not a lot of info here, but at least it's reassuring that they are on the case with a vengeance.

QUESTION: Thanks for having this press conference. Dr. Gerberding, can you tell us, is there any reason to think that this is or is not terrorism?
DR. GERBERDING: No, what we know so far about this outbreak is that the people who appear to be most at risk are either health care workers taking care of sick people, or family members or household contacts of those that are affected. That pattern of transmission is what we would typically expect to see from a contagious respiratory illness or a flu-like illness. But we have an open mind, and let me emphasize that we have an open mind and will be keeping an open mind about this as we go forward. We don't know the cause of this, and until we have laboratory information to point this in the right direction, we cannot jump to any conclusions one way or another.
QUESTION: So it sounds like what you're saying is that it's not necessarily--you don't have any reason to think it's terrorism but you can't rule out that it's terrorism?

DR. GERBERDING: We're just keeping an open mind.

His evasiveness in other parts of the conference call was disturbing

ATLANTA (AP) -- Travelers entering the United States after visiting any of the Asian areas affected by a deadly, new flu-like illness are being given cards alerting them to watch for symptoms.

"During your recent travel, you may have been exposed to cases of severe acute respiratory disease syndrome. You should monitor your health for at least 7 days. If you become ill with fever accompanied by cough or difficulty in breathing, you should consult a physician," the card advises.
It instructs the traveler to save the card to give to a doctor in case symptoms appear.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the U.S. government began distributing the health alert cards Sunday at U.S. ports of entry. The cards are given only to those who have been to Hong Kong and Guangdong province in China, and Hanoi, Vietnam.

Series, hope you are feeling better today, tomorrow, and evermore.

I'm sorry. (((hugs)))

The Captain Tripps Watch.

It's a 2-7 day incubation. Some get it in 2 days and are dead by the 7th. No one knows at what point a person becomes contagious either. They don't know what is causing it as the antivirals and antibacterials aren't working and they haven't isolated it yet.

I don't think it is al quaeda but I do think it possibly is China taking advantage of the terrorism/war situation.

Can we change the title? It's no longer "an hour ago."

By this weekend, more than 100 cases have been reported in Hong Kong alone.

What is the source of this figure?

China is probably the smartest of them all. The PRC stated that they are against war and diplomacy should be given a chance. This keeps her in good graces with our opposition, but she will not veto our resolution nor actively lobby other nations against us. That way she can repair her relations with us and keep her trade ties open. She basicly has no dog in this fight. She probably do not mind if a bulk of US forces are in Iraq and part of it keeping an eye on North Korea. This prevents Taiwan from barking for independence because US resources are stretched. France is going to be a hurting puppy of them all. Her opposition included intensive international lobbying of other nations to vote against the US. She will pay dearly after the war along with Germany.

This is totally bogus. If you are ill, elderly, immuno-compromised, you may suffer a severe illness or even die. But if you're healthy, not immuno-compromised, you will recover. 90% fatality in a widespread, easily spread disease, and the world is over!! Even Saddam couldn't hope for results this good! This is bogus!