Posted on 05/24/2003 6:08:28 PM PDT by CathyRyan
After reviewing several case records, scientists yesterday said that the initial outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome may have erupted as early as November 2001, even though China claims its first SARS case was discovered just seven months ago.
Dr. James Maguire, a team member from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention temporary based in Beijing, who traveled to Guangdong to investigate the SARS outbreak last month, said that the death of a Taiwanese man, Huang Hsuan-ping (À«Å¥), in Guangdong in January 2002 is the earliest suspected case of SARS now known.
Maguire said Huang's case was crucial to research on the disease, since he doesn't think the case in November is the first one.
After discussing Huang's case with his family, Dr. Maguire said that requiring doctors and hospitals in the area to review their patients' records would be necessary, to investigate whether SARS emerged earlier than expected.
Huang, who had worked in the Delta Electronics Group's Dongguan plant for seven years, died shortly after suffering "flu symptoms" at the age of 45.
His cause of death was eventually determined to have been "pneumonia exhaustion," following an argument between Dr. Chang Shang-chwen (±i¤W²E) and Huang's doctor in Guangdong's Shijie Hospital, according to Huangs sister, Huang Lien-hwa (À棵Ø), director of the National Taiwan University Hospital's nursing department. Based on his analysis of Huang's case, Dr. Chang Shang-chwen assessed that the virus broke out in the fall or winter of 2001.
Chang said that Huang's case has a high degree of similarity to Taiwan's first SARS patients', who checked in to NTU Hospital this March.
Furthermore, Chang said he was told by Huang's Guangdong doctor that there were other cases which displayed similar symptoms to Huang's and died in a very short period of time, which makes him believe that the outbreak could have erupted between 2001 fall and 2002 winter.
Chang said that the SARS outbreak could have temporarily disappeared last summer and then resurfaced last fall, which finally resulted in the international outbreak.
Chang emphasized that an epidemic takes a long time to become well established.
As Huang's case is under investigation, Guangdong's Shijie Hospital yesterday declined to comment on Chang's statements. The Office of Taiwan Affairs in Guangdong said that there has only been one Taiwanese SARS victim and that the 200,000 Taiwanese living in Guangdong are under excellent protection.
Based on the office's statement, Chinese national, Huang Xingchu, who worked at a game restaurant in Guangdong province, was China's first reported SARS case last November. Huang's case caused some WHO researchers to suspect that the virus could be closely related to viruses in animals.
Story seems not to give any indication how Huang might have caught the disease. I take it Dongguan is in Guangdong province. Anybody know where, precisely?
For several decades on the Pearl River there has been both a wild harvest and cultured pearl industry built around fresh water mussels.
The pearl are sold,the shell will be used for cultured pearl implants and a source of calcium,etc.
The mussel meat can be used for feeding a number of kinds of animals along with being used as bait for fish,turtles and many wild mammals.
Some people will eat the meats but when folks have asked me in this country to supply them "legally" with mussel for human consumption I turn them down for a good reason.
Mussel meat is notorious for collecting a number of diseases and all kinds of manmade industrial chemicals (PCBs,etc).
Would the aggregate chemicals in mussels used for food and bait be likely to cause mutations in other diseases like the corona virus?
The same folks that raise or dive for mussel would likely deal in the wild animal trade.
Tons of mussel meat would be produced and used for bait or animal and human food.
PCBs are only one of many nastys that buildup in shellfish.Could the chemicals cause SARS to mutate?
Just a thought.
I was thinking that PCBs,etc. can cause mutations in even much higher organisms than viruses.
Maybe one of you can tell me if SARS would have been more likely to mutate in people or animals that have high levels of nasty chemicals,(PCBs,etc.),in their bodies from consumption of badly contaminated food.
It makes sense to me but I'm certainly no geneticist. ;O)
Mussels are filter feeders. They pick up poison plankton (red tide) during certain times of the year. They live on whatever they can filter out of the water. Still, they are considered safe to eat during the cold months of the year after flushing the poison plankton out.
Mutagens are the class of agents that you want to investigate with respect to accelerated mutation. Sunlight in the ultraviolet range can cleave a DNA or RNA molecule. Ionizing radiation (principally beta and gamma radiation) are capable of inducing mutations. The chlorination process used to disinfect municipal water supplies produces many mutagenic byproducts. Fertilizer and pesticide runoff from lawns and agricultural activities contain many mutagens. Drinking water contains many human hormones from birth control pills and antibiotics that pass right through the user. It would be difficult to isolate any single mutagenic element as causative in the case of SARS.
Even when legal to harvest fresh water mussels for shell and pearl,with the right permits,some areas make it illegal to use the meat for humans but not animals.
I haven't been able to get the idea of something like PCBs or mercury from mutating all kinds of bad diseases,viruses,etc. in humans or animals out of my mind for quite some time.
Thank you "very" much for the education.
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