Study offers first picture of effects of SARS

CTV.ca ^ | May 28, 2003 | CTV.ca News Staff

[Judith Anne]

I take exception to your post that N95 masks aren't necessary. Otherwise, thank you for posting...

[Judith Anne]

I just read in a NEJM article here:

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/348/20/e6

that SARS can be spread from person to person DURING THE INCUBATION PERIOD, before any signs of the illness show...

That's the worst news about this disease that I've read.

[Judith Anne]

Just pinging you to my previous post, my apology I forgot to put you on the list...

[blam]

"That's the worst news about this disease that I've read."

So, even when you don't know you have it, you're already infecting others. Bad news!

[EternalHope]

Thanks for your GREAT link to SARS studies!

[Judith Anne]

No, Cathy, it wasn't like that...the article is from May 15, it's just ME who is surprised...apparently everyone else already knew it...I was going along assuming (yes, I know) that a person had to have symptoms and be out of the incubation period before the disease could spread...

[CathyRyan]

I am truly starting to believe that the people on these sars threads know more about sars that the "experts". FR is just flat out ahead the curve on sars. It seems daily there is something that pops up that we have already heard about.

[Judith Anne]

Exactly. Can you imagine some Toronto Teen, cruising the mall, sure she isn't going to come down with anything, spreading SARS all around...

[Judith Anne]

I'm still getting over the shock of learning that people can spread SARS in the incubation period...that one slipped right by me...

[CathyRyan]

I am sorry I am going to sit in the corner and be quiet. I have read so much and things have gone back and forth so much that I do not know if I am coming or going. IIRC there was an article in April that talked about someone contracting sars from someone before that person shows symptons. I wish the search engine on FR was good enough to find that needle in that hay stack. Maybe someone else remembers the article. I believe it was two health care workers.

[CathyRyan]

Night all! :)

[Judith Anne]

Cathy, I'm writing you a Freepmail...

[Concentrate]

I've read a lot of the SARS threads, but I can't remember that particular one. Diseases being so complicated, it's not illogical to entertain the possibility that one can infect others without yet having symptoms.

I hope this is just something that will pass. If I get SARS, I think I'll just stay home and deal with it. I've never been in a hospital before, and I think I'd rather do it at home. I'm in an industry which puts me on the front lines. I don't want to spend months in a hospital room and then die anyway, or have permanent lung, liver or kidney damage.

I suspect that many in China and other places feel the same way as I do.

[Screaming_Gerbil]

Any practical suggestions about what we should be doing on an individual basis NOW and in the coming few months to prepare for a possible SARS disaster in the fall?

Have enough money in the checking account and canned/dried food and related supplies in the basement to stay inside the house for one month?

Several bottles of Vinegar (white or apple or doesn't matter?).

Disposable latex gloves and disposable N95 masks?

Oxygen bottles and mask?

Get Will and Durable Power of Attorney up to date?

Plan on going up North and living in a tent in the woods from September of this year to March of next year?

Seriously, knowing that nothing is guaranteed and the best laid plans can go astray, what would be the most practical steps for concerned (non-paranoid) individuals to take between now and the Fall?

[TaxRelief]

The NEJM article is written by Jeffrey Drazen. Many consider him to be, well, impulsive. He has had to retract things in the past.

Remember this is an editorial not a research article. I am now combing through the research, and while I do buy the logic, there is no empirical evidence of pre-symptom infection. Link to research:

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/348/20/1977?ijkey=698fc666a33597e1ef563f0c35d47f5516a940a7

Let's not jump to conclusions based on one analysis by J. Drazen, (who has retracted things in the past).

[TaxRelief]

What precautions for next winter? Your #1-5 are always good to have in place anyway, but expand it to whatever is in the FEMA manuals.

#6 is an emergency option to be ready to use. Buy the land now though, while it's still cheap.

</tin foil hat

[CathyRyan]

My computer crashed and trashed (crashed and I had to reformat my hard drive so I lost all my sars data). It was part of an article that was on something else as the main topic and the getting was sars from soneone without symptoms was just like a throw away in the article. I think I will try to find it. It was at a point in time that info. on sars was changing so fast that if just got swept away. I will start digging.

[CathyRyan]

I gave up looking. :)
Please, forget I made an issue out of known prior asymptomatic transmission of sars.

[BartMan1]

Can try this link to the Lancet home page; may have to sign in , but the article is available as a free download, either as PDF or text. Volume 361, May 3rd issue, pages 1519-1520.

http://www.thelancet.com/