Aust virologist leads WHO's fight against SARS (AUSTRALIAN LATELINE INTERVIEW)

LATELINE TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT ^ | Apr. 22, 2003 | Tony Jones interviewing Professor John McKenzie

[aristeides]

If rats turn out to be the source, the similarity of the genome with that of rat SDA virus may turn out to be quite significant.

[aristeides]

Fascinating interview, especially on the origins of SARS.

[Shermy]

Interesting. Does he purposely leave out swine as a possible source?

[aristeides]

I don't know whether the omission was on purpose. Maybe he was thinking there's no observable connection between pigs and Amoy Gardens.

[Nebullis]

What similarity of the genome with rat SDA are you referring to?

[Calpernia]

PING!

[aristeides]

riri posted that there is a similarity. I don't know enough about genetics to be able to explain what it is.

[Consort]

What's the death rate from all these SARS threads?

[aristeides]

Nobody's forcing you to read them.

[Nebullis]

This virus is really quite new and not related to any of the known virus sequences, including rat, bovine, porcine, avian, canine, feline, and the human cold virus.

[Calpernia]

Rats I see caught your eye. But the Ministry of Defense caught mine. I see the largest amount of cases is in the military hospital. Hence, if the original outbreak was in Guangdong, wouldn't that be the first place to go and inspect? Yet the Australian Doctor never went to Guangdong. Any thoughts anyone?

I just did a search, look at this note:

http://ibb7.ibb.gov/newswire/2e19274c.html
SLUG: 2-302272 China / SARS DATE: NOTE NUMBER:

DATE=04/16/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=CHINA SARS (L)

NUMBER=2-302272

BYLINE=JIM RANDLE

DATELINE=BEIJING

CONTENT=


VOICED AT:



INTRO: World Health Organization experts say China is reporting only a fraction of the cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in Beijing. As V-O-A's Jim Randle reports, the finding follows Chinese pledges to be more open about SARS in the country.


TEXT: World Health Organization disease control scientists report that the number of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome cases in Beijing is far higher than the tally of 37 given by China's Health Ministry.


W-H-O experts have been visiting hospitals, interviewing doctors and examining patients. They say they found a number of unreported cases in Beijing hospitals run by China's military.


Alan Schnur is part of the W-H-O team.


/// SCHNUR ACT ///


I would guesstimate (guess) the range maybe 100 to 200, somewhere between there.


/// END ACT ///


W-H-O virologist Wolfgang Preiser says Chinese officials asked the U-N agency to reveal few details to the public about the military-run hospitals.


/// PREISER ACT ///


We were clearly asked not to give a detailed account of what we saw at the respective treatment hospitals unless that has been cleared by the Ministry of Defense.


/// END ACT ///


Officials say perhaps one-thousand more patients in Beijing are being watched to see if they have the disease.


W-H-O is calling for improvements in China's system of disease reporting, and much better efforts to communicate with its citizens, doctors, and the rest of the world.


SARS has infected more than 32-hundred people around the globe since it first appeared late last year in southern China. More than 150 people have died of the disease, which causes severe flu-like symptoms and often develops into an unusual form of pneumonia.


China has seen more than 14-hundred of SARS cases and reported at least 64 deaths.


For months after the disease appeared in China, the Beijing government withheld information about its seriousness. Countries around the world have criticized China for its secretiveness. Many governments warn their citizens to avoid traveling to China, and several foreign government officials have canceled visits to the country.


In the past two weeks, Beijing had pledged to cooperate with W-H-O. The government also kicked off a campaign this week to warn its citizens about SARS and began new efforts to contain it, such as quarantining suspected victims and cleaning public transportation systems. (SIGNED)


NEB/HK/JR/KPD/MEM/rae

[riri]

What's the death rate from all these SARS threads?

Last I checked the death rate is about even withthe ever so important Lacie Peterson and Dixie Chicks threads...but not as high as all the Garafalo threads. Hope that helps.

[Dog Gone]

The encouraging news is that it's becoming more clear that airline travel isn't as dangerous as it had earlier appeared.

[aristeides]

The common ancestor of the SARS E2 spike protein also gave rise to the rat sialodacryoadenitis coronavirus spike protein. It would appear that SARS E2 spike protein and the avian infectious bronchitis viruses and feline infectious peritonitis virus and canine cornavirus as well as the porcine respiratory virus were derived from a common ancestor.

From Dr. Robert Lee article entitled "SARS E2 Spike-protein Phylogeny". Link appears to be down.

[riri]

Actually, I posted an article by a microbiologist who made the comparison. I am, quite obviously, scientifically illiterate.

[Consort]

Yes, we're killing ourselves. Thread suicide.

[Consort]

Original. Now let me know when you find a cure.

[Calpernia]

http://ibb7.ibb.gov/newswire/3c193bc2.html

DATE=4/23/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=ASIA SARS (L)

NUMBER=2-302480

BYLINE=KATHERINE MARIA

DATELINE=HONG KONG

CONTENT=


VOICED AT:


INTRO: In Beijing, schools and universities are shutting down in an effort to curtail the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. V-O-A's Katherine Maria reports Hong Kong is welcoming international experts to check government reports that some residents were infected by sewage tainted with the SARS virus.


TEXT: Beijing's schools were ordered to close as new figures reveal that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome has spread further in the city than previously thought.


/// FATHER ACT EST & FADE ///


This man complains that closing the schools will harm his son's education.


China now reports more than 23-hundred SARS cases and at least 106 deaths. But the Ministry of Health warned there are 11-hundred suspected cases scattered across the country.


Not only has the number of SARS victims increased, but more provinces reported SARS outbreaks, confirming that the disease has spread to China's poorer areas. At least 22 of China's 30 provinces and municipal districts have SARS cases.


The World Health Organization had voiced concern in the past that the death rate could rise if the disease hits areas ill-equipped to treat SARS.


Hong Kong officials say a team of environmental experts from W-H-O will examine tests indicating that SARS spread through a faulty sewage system to infect hundreds of people in one apartment building.


Tracy Treadwell, a W-H-O epidemiologist based in Hong Kong, explains the difficulty in determining the main cause for the massive outbreak in the Amoy Gardens high-rise.


/// TREADWELL ACT ///


I do not know that leaking sewage pipes, they are not placing a huge percentage of the cause on that, I think it is one of the additional causes. I do not think you can really say it is 50-percent this, 20-percent that, 10-percent that. We have no way of being able to break it out that way.


/// END ACT ///


Hong Kong has seen more than 14-hundred SARS cases and 105 deaths.


/// OPT ///


The city's lawmakers are considering a government relief package that grants tax rebates and loans for businesses hurt by the SARS outbreak, which has cut tourism and retailing.


Officials in Taiwan's capital, Taipei, said seven hospital workers have displayed SARS symptoms, such as high fever and atypical pneumonia, and are being isolated.


In Singapore, 24-hundred people under quarantine after possibly coming in contact with a SARS patient were told they could face jail if they do not remain isolated. The quarantine covers vendors in a vegetable market where one man became sick and died from the disease.


/// END OPT ///


Worldwide, more than four-thousand people have been infected with SARS and about 240 have died. (SIGNED)


NEB/HK/KM/KPD/RAE

[Nebullis]

Actually, I posted an article by a microbiologist who made the comparison.

I can't find anything related to it in the literature.

The NEJM has published a couple of articles with information on the SARS virus. One of them, (Ksiazek et al. N Engl J Med 2003;10.1056, A Novel Coronavirus Associated with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.) has a nice diagram showing the phylogenetic relationship between known coronaviruses.