BREAKING BIG: POSSIBLE PATHOGEN DETECTED IN SARS CASE

PROMED ^ | 03-18-03

[Mother Abigail]

Paramyxovirus-like particles identified by electron microscopy

Numerous tests have been performed on the 3 patients admitted on Saturday 15 March to the Isolation Unit at Frankfurt am Main with suspected severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Tests from respiratory specimens for influenza A and B virus, respiratory syncytial virus, enteroviruses, _Mycoplasma pneumoniae_ and _Chlamydia_ spp. by antigen enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and/or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were all negative; antibody tests for dengue, influenza A and B, measles, hantaviruses, _Mycoplasma pneumoniae_ and _Chlamydia_ spp. were likewise negative or unremarkable so far; further test results are pending.

Particles morphologically resembling paramyxoviruses were seen in respiratory specimens (throat swab and sputum) obtained from the index patient, a doctor from Singapore, by the teams in Marburg and in Frankfurt am Main.

It remains to be seen whether this finding can be confirmed -- tests including low-stringency paramyxovirus PCR and tissue culture are currently under way in Hamburg, in Marburg and in Frankfurt am Main. It needs to be emphasised that at this time these preliminary results only indicate a suspicion. Furthermore, even if the presence of a paramyxovirus was confirmed, it is not clear at this stage whether this might represent the causal agent of SARS or rather a coincidental finding.

[CholeraJoe]

Sounds like we came to the same conclusion.

[Mother Abigail]

Join the club,

We have to find out what is really going on in Hong Kong.

As per loin pointed out last night, we have all these different travelers going to HK - Australian, Irish, English, German, etc., and being infected.

They are not going into the hospitals and I doubt they frequent the same areas.

All points to a fullblown outbreak that is being spread way to easily for my taste

Stay tuned...

[RandallFlagg]

WEEEELLL? We're both patriots, though.

[eyespysomething]

Mine was 10 months old. He had already been on breathing treatments for "childhood asthma" since he was 6 m.o. Yes he does sleep on a bit of an incline. We only have to do the breathing treatments a few days a week now, and he actually had a DR visit when he wasn't wheezy, I can't remember one of those with him before! Maybe he will outgrow it. But this is a terrible time of year for him, colds, flus, etc. I did not need this added to it. Moms (I am presuming) - we sure do worry!
Yes, I wasn't even aware of the vaccine until after he had RSV. People should be offered it. I too wish Drs and hospitals would be more forthcoming about such vaccines, and info on conditions such as RSV. (I had never even heard of such before he had it!)(and he's my 3rd!)

[Mother Abigail]

Brunei's First Killer SARS Patient Under Watch In RIPAS Hospital
Bandar Seri Begawan - A 28-year-old woman has reportedly fallen ill in Brunei on Tuesday with suspected mystery killer disease Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). It is the first such case in the sultanate, according to reliable sources.

The woman, a Brunei Shell employee had returned from a trip to Hong Kong and Southern China on March 3 when she became ill soon after.
According to a reliable medical source she suffered since last Wednesday from headaches, fever and muscular pains, shortness of breath and cough.

She went to a doctor who gave her antibiotics to counter the symptoms of pneumonia.

But her discomfort persisted and the RIPAS hospital isolated her on Tuesday night in a ward specially prepared anticipating an outbreak.
The hospital authorities are working feverishly to study the case and devise possible treatment. A source described that the status of her illness based on the current symptoms as a "medium probability." More tests have to be conducted to confirm the virus disease.

The Brunei Health Ministry meanwhile has advised anyone who have travelled to the affected areas such as Hong Kong, China and Vietnam in the last two weeks and has developed a sudden onset of high fever, respiratory systems like cough, shortness of breath or difficulty in breathing to seek medical attention as soon as possible.

But sources said that there was no cause for alarm as this appeared a one off case. However they urged caution.

Health Ministry announced till Monday that Brunei had no clinical cases reported but will continue to monitor the development of the outbreak in line with guidelines in the control and prevention of communicable disease.

The Health Ministry yesterday stated that it will be keeping a close eye on the situation and has taken precautionary measures to avoid any possible outbreaks.
SARS is an infectious disease characterised by a typical pneumonia for which the cause has not yet been determined.
The disease is spread from person-to-person but only through close contact with a case.

There is no evidence to date that the disease spreads through casual contact.

The Health Ministry will continue to work with authorities to ensure that all who pass through points of entries in the sultanate are monitored.

[Domestic Church]

"If it is indeed man-made for weapons use, it seems as though they could have come up with something far more infectious as well as having a higher lethality"

We haven't seen enough cases to pinpoint lethality and the numbers coming out of the Asian countries aren't concrete. Also we don't know if the lethality will change with population genetics. If it is weaponized I would expect that.

Even if it is a natural shift, the timing is still so suspect to consider the possibility of it being opportunistic warefare.

[Mother Abigail]

Hong Kong - Hong Kong moved to curb the spread of potentially deadly atypical pneumonia on Tuesday by closing an accident and emergency ward, as the number of cases here grew to 111.

Accident and emergency services will be closed for at least three days at the Prince of Wales hospital, where medical ward staff have also been cut by a third, hospital authority chief executive Dr William Ho told a news conference.

Thirty-nine workers at the hospital are among 111 people in Hong Kong stricken by the mysterious pneumonia, up from 83 announced on Monday. A further 12 people were under observation.
Health Secretary Yeoh Eng-kiong sought to play down the seriousness of the outbreak, saying the mystery disease did not appear to be widespread in the community at large.

"Of course, if we don't know the virus, we would not begin to discern the number in the community," he admitted. "But we have certainly not seen widespread outbreaks in the community, because if they were as widespread as in the hospitals, you can imagine that we'd have large numbers of atypical pneumonia in the hospitals."

Hong Kong is at the centre of global alert over the mystery disease, which has been given the name Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) by the Geneva-based World Health Organisation (WHO).

[CathyRyan]

casual contact = close contact

[Judith Anne]

Thanks, MA. I wish "casual contact" were more clearly defined, I don't quite believe that it isn't (or couldn't be) spread by whatever "casual contact" is.

And I don't trust the statistics on the spread, either...normal regular yearly influenza pneumonia will kill a certain number of debilitated people every year...and WHO issues NO alerts about that which reach media attention...

Bonesmccoy you make the point that we may not hear anything more about this, but today, I'm not so sure...

[Judith Anne]

Cathy, hi, I just saw your post...gmta...

[tracer]

Your lawyer would say, "That depends"....

[Domestic Church]

"chinese would not attempt to engineer something and then test it on its on subjects."

Population control takes many paths in China.

[dixiechick2000]

Isn't Mother Abigail the name of the character in the Stephen King super-flu novel, The Stand?

If so, that's a REALLY creepy coincidence.

RandallFlagg posts here, as well.

Hmmmm...

[CathyRyan]

FAQ about SARS at CDC

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/sars/faq.htm

[Domestic Church]

"two ozs. of Bacardi 151 in a steaming cup of green tea"
try it over ice and through a straw for a torticollis!

[CathyRyan]

gmta is new to me. What does it stand for? :)

[aristeides]

Interesting article about SARS in today's Wall Street Journal, "Why China Didn't Disclose Deadly Ailment for Months." Article concludes relatively cheerfully:

In Guangzhou, the disease now seems to be waning. At Sun Yat-Sen hospital, patients in the quarantine ward with the illness now number 11, down from the peak of about 40 last month, according to patients. Still, most employees at the hospital wear surgical masks while working.

Visitors peel off their masks when they emerge from the hospital gates, greeted by a stiff wind off the Pearl River. "You get this and you're probably finished," says Zhang Weishi, as he prepares to enter the hospital to see a friend. "We don't know anything about this -- where it came from, what caused it. We don't know."

[CholeraJoe]

GMTA=Great Minds Think Alike

[aristeides]

Harsh measures to stop disease .

[Judith Anne]

Short for "Great Minds Think Alike." ;-D I'm still a bit adrift about "close contact, though. You posted your reply shortly before I got mine posted...