[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!

[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.

[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).

[aristeides]

The following paragraph from Sars Reference suggests that, while transmission might be possible during the incubation period, it is much more likely when the symptoms are prominent:

LInfectivity might therefore be variable over time, even during the symptomatic phase of the disease. Indeed, preliminary findings from sequential quantitative RT-PCR analyses of nasopharyngeal aspirates suggest that the viral load might peak at around day 10 after the onset of symptoms and then decrease to the levels obtained on admission at day 15 (Peiris II).