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.

[null and void]

Translation: Only animals that have a spine get these viruses,

Just freaking great. Only the french survive...

[Judith Anne]

Cathy, every time I read a news report that mentions all the areas that supposedly have a case, they invariably leave out one or two others...

Now LA with four suspected cases and Chicago with four suspected cases....

[Judith Anne]

The French have spines? News to me...;-D

[aristeides]

(February! something wrong with the timeline...)

A businessman on Taiwan who has the disease travelled to South China in late February.

According to the article in today's Wall Street Journal, the disease first appeared in Foshan, China in mid-November.

[Mother Abigail]

Exactly right

[null and void]

No spine, that's why they don't get the virus...

[mommadooo3]

two ounces of forty-percent ethanol solution......................
Ummm, is that the citified name fer 'shine?

[Mother Abigail]

Yes, but we are pretty certain the incubation period is 3-7 days (mas o menos)

I suspect this is not a case of SARS, or he is a secondary case.

Just thinking aloud

[Mark17]

Just freaking great. Only the french survive...

I did not know the French had spines.

[hispanarepublicana]

There is no need to be concerned at this point. This is an exotic disease in a far off land. Some people who are going to Asia are returning infected.

A group from my company has been called back home because they were within 24 hours of going to SE Asia on business. My next-door office mate just returned from there. If he gets sick in the coming days, I will be in sheer panic.

[null and void]

See #226.

Check out a reading comprehension course...

[aristeides]

Wash your hands a lot.

[null and void]

I'd stay home and call in well...

[Kev-Head]

Brain Cell melt down here.

[Mother Abigail]

It just means that this new virus only infects animals with a backbone - like us.

And that the virus is not carried/transmitted by invertebrate animals such as insects, arachnids(spiders), and crustaceans(crabs)

[mommadooo3]

IF this is Spanish flu, HOW would it have gotten 'loose' in China? Could it have traveled to China, and some animals picked it up/passed it on to humans? Could it have been a bioterror experiment or benign experiment that went astray?

We always read about 'known' bioterrors and how 'they' are tinkering with them, to make them MORE deadly and less treatable. Couldn't this be such an instance? Not too long ago, China SWORE they would strike America within 5 years. Wouldn't it be a perfect cover if they did something like this, which would 'get pinned on' a diaperhead or sodom insane?

I assume there is some written record somewhere, that has stories of the Spanish flu, symptoms, how quickly it spread, and their treatment ?

[twntaipan]

Foshan, China, huh? Now that is interesting. Some very nasty computer viruses have been traced to Foshan University---FWIW.

[CathyRyan]

The disease reportedly first appeared 2 months ago in Heyuan city, 150 kilometers (90 miles) northwest of Hong Kong, while mid- January [2003] press reports from Zhongshan city in the Pearl River Delta downplayed the health scare and urged citizens not to panic.

I think somebody in China needs to get the story straight?

http://www.promedmail.org/pls/askus/f?p=2400:1001:150771300967555752::::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_ARCHIVE_NUMBER,F2400_P1001_USE_ARCHIVE:1001,20030211.0369,Y

[aristeides]

IF this is Spanish flu, HOW would it have gotten 'loose' in China?

The 1918 Spanish flu is thought to have originated in China (as strains of flu generally do.)

[mommadooo3]

So Longyearbyen, Spitzbergen is in China?

I admit...geography ignorance.