Posted on 03/18/2003 10:54:49 PM PST by Mr. Mulliner
MARCH 19, 2003
The Mystery Bug Outbreak
Two more fall sick; toll hits 23
Four people in intensive care. No cause for alarm, says Health Minister; it will take another 10-14 days for an 'all clear'By Krist Boo and Sharmilpal Kaur
TWO more people affected by severe acute respiratory syndrome, or Sars, were hospitalised yesterday, bringing the total struck by the mystery illness here to 23.
And the condition of two more patients warded at Tan Tock Seng Hospital took a turn for the worse, doubling the number in the intensive care unit to four.
Health Minister Lim Hng Kiang told Parliament yesterday: 'It will require us another 10 to 14 days, two more incubation cycles, before we can declare 'all clear' if all things go well.' He said there was no cause for alarm but it was important that Singaporeans did not to go to Hanoi, Guangdong or Hongkong unless absolutely necessary.
'The infection is brought in by humans and so, unless we encourage Singaporeans not to travel and be infected overseas, we have no effective means to stop the chain reaction.'
Those critically ill on Monday included the mother and a male friend of one of the three women who caught the disease in Hongkong at the end of last month.
Yesterday, a hospital worker and another person who knew the woman were shifted to the ICU.
In Frankfurt, doctors confirmed yesterday that a Singapore doctor and his pregnant wife quarantined there are ill with Sars, reported the Associated Press.
The 32-year-old doctor, his 30-year-old wife and her mother were taken off a Singapore Airlines flight from New York on Saturday.
The doctor appears to be recovering but his wife, who is in her 13th week of pregnancy, has developed all the symptoms of Sars but tests have indicated no damage to the foetus, a doctor said.
Elsewhere around the world, a handful of suspected cases of the illness surfaced in new spots like Thailand and Austria but there were no new fatalities since the nine reported over the weekend, a Reuters report said.
Heeding the authorities' advice, many Singaporeans travelling to Sars-hit areas had either cancelled or chosen other destinations, travel agents here said.
For instance, Chan Brothers said half of its customers booked for Hongkong this month had cancelled or postponed their trips while Holidex Tours and Travel said that of its 230 bookings to Hongkong this month, 150 had postponed their trips and 30 had cancelled.
Despite warnings on Monday by SIA and Cathay Pacific that people with flu-like symptoms may not be allowed to check in, nobody was turned away from the counters at Changi airport yesterday.
Mr Martin Freibergs, 26, a purchaser from Sweden, had stopped over in Hongkong for three days before coming to Singapore. He was going back to Hongkong on Cathay Pacific before returning to Sweden. He had a very hoarse voice, a sore throat, and was coughing.
'You hear my voice? I am worried. I will go to a doctor for an examination once I get back to Sweden,' he said.
But he added that he hadn't considering cancelling his trip.
Neither did the counter staff stop him from checking in or ask any questions.
Cathay Pacific Airways had copies of the WHO travel advisory on its counters for passengers to pick up if they wanted to.
The airlines' country manager for Singapore, Mr James Ginnes, said that though a small number had decided to cancel, 'the majority of people are still travelling'.
Copyright @ 2003 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.
Killer Virus (SARS) Identified
Far from the deadliest epidemic. The Bubonic Plague. Just mention the name and you will send shivers down the spine of many people. There is no doubt that this disease was deadly. Deadly and gruesome to watch. The death rate was 90% for those exposed to the bacterium. It was transmitted by the fleas from infected Old English black rats. The symptoms were clear: swollen lymph nodes (buboes, hence the name), high fever, and delirium. In the worst case, the lungs became infected and the pneumonic form was spread from person to person by coughing, sneezing, or simply talking. From the time of infection to death was less than one week. There were three major epidemics - in the 6th, 14th, and 17th centuries. The death toll was 137 million victims. As a result, the plague is considered to be the worst epidemic of all time, but it wasn't (not that we are downplaying the severity of the plague). At its worst, the bubonic plague killed 2 million victims a year. This is certainly a bad situation, but there is one that is worse. The pandemic (an epidemic that is spread worldwide) that killed at least 25 million people in one year. A disease that is largely forgotten. A disease that occurred in the 20th century! I know what you're thinking - AID's, Syphilis, or the dreaded Ebola. All are wrong. It was the influenza of 1918-1919, right after World War I (the war killed 9 million men in 4 years) This was no minor disease - everyone on the planet was at risk. And it was started right here in the good old U. S. of A. In one year, nearly twenty million cases were reported in the United States, accounting for almost one million deaths. The cause is still unknown, but is believed to have been a mutated swine virus. It all started on the morning of March 11, 1918 at Camp Funston, Kansas. A company cook named Albert Mitchell reported to the infirmary with typical flu-like symptoms - a low-grade fever, mild sore throat, slight headache, and muscle aches. Bed rest was recommended. By noon, 107 soldiers were sick. Within two days, 522 people were sick. Many were gravely ill with severe pneumonia. Then reports started coming in from other military bases around the country. Thousands of sailors docked off the East Coast were sick. Within a week, the influenza was hitting isolated places, such as the island of Alcatraz. Whatever the cause, it was clearly airborne. Within seven days, every state in the Union had been infected. Then it spread across the Atlantic. By April, French troops and civilians were infected. By mid-April, the disease had spread to China and Japan. By May, the virus was spread throughout Africa and South America. The actual killer was the pneumonia that accompanied the infection. In Philadelphia, 158 out of every 1000 people died. 148 out of 1000 in Baltimore. 109 out of 1000 in Washington, D. C.. The good news (if there was any) was that the disease peaked within two to three weeks after showing up in a given city. It left as quickly as it arrived. The United States death toll was a total of 850,000 people, making it an area of the world that was least devastated by this virus. Sixty percent of the Eskimo population was wiped out in Nome, Alaska. 80-90% of the Samoan population was infected, many of the survivors dying from starvation (they lacked the energy to feed themselves). Luxury ocean liners from Europe would arrive in New York with 7% less passengers than they embarked with. The confined area of the ship was especially conducive to the spread of the disease. In the end, 25 million people had died. Some estimates put the number as high as 37 million. Eighteen months after the disease appeared, the flu bug vanished and has never shown up again. So what happened? Until recently, no one was really sure. In March of 1997, the news broke that researchers at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, D. C. had isolated genetic material from the virus. This was no easy task. The living virus is no longer around. It turns out that while conducting autopsies in 1918, Army doctors had preserved some specimens in formaldehyde. One of these jars contained the lungs of a 21 year old soldier that died on September 26, 1918. Bingo! The researchers spent nearly two years extracting just seven percent of the genetic code, but the evidence gathered has provided a great wealth of information. It appears that the virus passed from birds to pigs and then to humans. These are the deadliest of all viruses. The viruses tend to remain stable in the birds, but occassionally they infect pigs. Of course, the pig immune system kicks into action and the virus is forced to mutate to survive. Both the Asian flu (1957) and the Hong Kong flu (1968), which were not as deadly, mutated from pig viruses. The scary part is that it could happen again - and we're not prepared for it.
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.