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Biotech Science

SARS Contained 323

Posted by michael from the black-death-avoided dept.
The World Health Organization has declared that SARS is contained, for now. Toronto has engaged in extensive analysis of the outbreak there, leading to a number of interesting and in-depth stories about the progression of the disease.
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SARS Contained More

SARS Contained

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  • it's about time... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by double_plus_ungod ( 678733 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @09:21PM (#6380397) Journal
    this flu season should be frightening. everyone will think they have the sars when it's just the flu.

    counting down to the next outbreak of some other nasty bug like hantavirus, westnile, or ebola
    • everyone will think they have the sars when it's just the flu.

      Considering that the flu has a higher mortality rate than SARS, I would be more worried about it.
      • that's a myth. There is something like a 10% chance of dying from SARS, and most people who come down with it are hospitalized.

        • Re:it's about time... (Score:4, Funny)

          by Jonavin ( 71006 ) on Monday July 07, 2003 @12:01AM (#6381066) Homepage
          That 10% death rate is inflated. First of all, most of the people that got it was already in the hospital for one reason or another. They count it as a SARS death if there's 1% chance that it was due to SARS.

          I live in Toronto, and some think SARS is great. That's right, cheap theatre tickets, low hotel rates, no waiting for a table at your favourate restaurant. Easy to find parking, and there's always the obligatory "SARS discounts". To quote , "WE LOVE SARS!". [snapmedia.com]

          But seriously, no offence to the people who have really sufferred from this sickness, but this thing is over-hyped. If you just watched CNN, you'd think everybody in Toronto was getting it left and right. And where the heck do they find all those people with SARS masks? I've been all over Toronto in the past few months and haven't seen one single person wear a mask except on TV (pictures of hospital workers).

    • Re:it's about time... (Score:5, Informative)

      by b-baggins ( 610215 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @09:54PM (#6380562) Journal
      You should be more terrified of the flu, since the flu kills about a thousand times more people in a year than this stupid SARS virus did. For crying out loud, you had a greater chance of dying by slipping in your bathtub. Even in China.

      • Re:it's about time... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by stefanlasiewski ( 63134 ) * <slashdot AT stefanco DOT com> on Sunday July 06, 2003 @10:14PM (#6380658) Homepage Journal
        since the flu kills about a thousand times more people in a year than this stupid SARS virus did.

        True, but it's the death rate you should be concerned with, not how many people died. The flu kills a thousands more people in a year then SARS because hundreds of millions of people (Billions?) get the flu in a year.

        The death rate for people infected with SARS is much , much higher then the death rate for people infected with the flue.

        • Re:it's about time... (Score:4, Insightful)

          by rocjoe71 ( 545053 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @11:00PM (#6380845) Homepage
          ...The death rate for SARS has been standing at around 10% since March. The fact is even when it was reported as being "out of control" in several places around the world it still wasn't spreading as virulently as influenza does every year-- or cholera-- or malaria...

        • Re:it's about time... (Score:5, Insightful)

          by dtake ( 653890 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @11:07PM (#6380868)

          True, but it's the death rate you should be concerned with, not how many people died. The flu kills a thousands more people in a year then SARS because hundreds of millions of people (Billions?) get the flu in a year.

          The death rate for people infected with SARS is much , much higher then the death rate for people infected with the flue.

          True, but compared with something like yellow fever, which afflicts 200,000 every year and kills 30,000, SARS affects many fewer people AND has a lower mortality rate. But I don't see any headlines about yellow fever and no mad rush to find a cure.

          And I wouldn't rule out a disease as a problem just because of a lower mortality rate. The very fact that 1.9 million children die of diarrheal diseases every year, 1 million people die of malaria every year, and 2 million die of tuberculosis every year means that they are more serious health problems than SARS. The fact that the mortality rate can be low for these diseases with proper care is irrelevant. In the real world these are the killers, not SARS.

          For more information on the diseases we still really need to worry about, check out the WHO Infectious diseases site [who.int]

          • You don't see any headlines about Yellow Fever for one reason:

            Whitey doesn't get it.

            There, I said it. SARS cases first showed up last November in China and Asia, but it wasn't until cases showed up in Toronto in March that it got into the mainstream Western news media. Yellow fever, TB, even ebola and hanta virus are not a problem for the western world. Ebola and Hanta are horrible.. but they kill so quickly that they can't really spread and most of the people with TB around the world live in poverty, so

        • Re:it's about time... (Score:4, Interesting)

          by plumby ( 179557 ) on Monday July 07, 2003 @06:38AM (#6381973)
          Proper risk management takes into account both the effect if an incident happens, and the likelihood of it happening. Being hit by an asteriod would probably be close to 100% fatal, but as it doesn't happen very often it's not a major concern. However, if the common cold had a 0.1% fatality rate, then I'd be very concerned, as I, like most people I know, get a cold at least once per year.

          A 1 in 10 chance of dying from something that you've got a 1 in many many millions chance of catching in the first place is just does not seem as frightening as the media made out.

      • Re:it's about time... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @10:30PM (#6380721) Homepage Journal
        " For crying out loud, you had a greater chance of dying by slipping in your bathtub. Even in China. "

        I'm not a big fan of reasoning like this. I may have a chance of slipping in the bathtub, but I can also take steps to prevent it. I also know exactly when and where it can happen so I can be on my guard. In the case of infection, I don't know when somebody else has it. That's what's truely scary about it.

        Your heart's in the right place, but the "worry over greater risks" reasoning could use some tuning. :)

        • Re:it's about time... (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Dr Tall ( 685787 )
          I may have a chance of slipping in the bathtub, but I can also take steps to prevent it. Especially since slipping in your bathtub is usually your own fault. Running into a person with SARS usually is not. Things which can harm you without personal error tend to frighten me more.

      • Re:it's about time... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by jsse ( 254124 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @10:56PM (#6380827) Homepage Journal
        This SARS is not a stupid virus as you might think. Here are the facts about the virus that really worried the experts:

        1) Regardless of what the press said, the method of spreading is still UNKNOWN
        2) Different regions revealed different format of the virus itself. Its true(or original) form is still UNKNOWN
        3) Some believed that the original infestion started by the contact of wild animal with human like it did for AIDS. However, experts later found that multiple generations of SARS were found in one region and even one host at the same time! It's rather different from AIDS. Thus, the origin of the virus is UNKNOWN

        Disclaimer: I live in Hong Kong - the city which has the major outbreak of SARS.

        • Re:it's about time... (Score:5, Informative)

          by grolschie ( 610666 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @11:12PM (#6380890)
          I spent one day in Hong Kong recently. What I noticed was that the only people wearing masks, seemed to be shop assistants and some airport security. I guess that is to make the partrons feel better. I guess the every people in Hong Kong are not so worried these days. Would that be fair to say?

          • Re:it's about time... (Score:5, Informative)

            by jsse ( 254124 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @11:31PM (#6380958) Homepage Journal
            I guess the every people in Hong Kong are not so worried these days. Would that be fair to say?

            Very true. Although there are lots of uncertainty about SARS but after the disaster we've confidence in facing it again.

            The high casualty is due to the infficiency of our local Government and their lack of risk awareness(which anger a lot of people and triggered a mass protest [nytimes.com] of the centaury). Fortunately for us we've a lot of brave people [time.com] who are willingly to risk their live to take the most dangerous and dirty job and nobody(but the governer) retreat. We're really proud of them.

          • Re:it's about time... (Score:3, Informative)

            by 1u3hr ( 530656 )
            I guess the every people in Hong Kong are not so worried these days. Would that be fair to say?

            Since there hasn't been any new cases reported for over 20 days, and the incubation period is 10 days, it's been declared safe.

        • 1) Regardless of what the press said, the method of spreading is still UNKNOWN

          It's a coranavirus, spread by sputum and other bodily fluids. No magic, just a tough virus that has to be treated with respect.

          Disclaimer: I live in Hong Kong - the city which has the major outbreak of SARS.

          So do I.

    • Re:it's about time... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Jotham ( 89116 ) on Monday July 07, 2003 @12:23AM (#6381142)
      this flu season should be frightening. everyone will think they have the sars when it's just the flu.

      Good, medical centres are now very effective at testing for it. I'm sick (no-pun intended) of people coughing and sniffling at work when they should be at home with companies encouraging this as proper behaviour. Maybe a few will take things a bit more seriously.

      Nah, what am I saying, the outbreak is over and besides I can't take a day off - my reports needs to be done!

      • I had a nasty cough for 5 weeks and didn't take a day off school or work. Pretty recently, too, when other universities were sending students home for much lesser symptoms. From the first week on, people among the university staff kept saying I should really see a doctor, as the coughs sounded worse than anything they said they'd heard. It probably lasted so long because I was pulling a lot of all-nighters at the time finishing reports, which probably weakened my immune system. Looking back at it, I probabl
  • Sars can be seen in just about any supermarket in the country now... See for example http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/news.xinhuanet .com/english/2003-05/21/content_879849.htm

  • Celebrations In TO (Score:4, Interesting)

    by LordoftheFrings ( 570171 ) <(null) (at) (fragfest.ca)> on Sunday July 06, 2003 @09:24PM (#6380416) Homepage
    I live near Toronto, and there were celebrations all day today, and today was the first day that Canada's Wonderland was filled to near capacity. Holding a seasons pass this year, my delight at seeing SARS gone is kind of put off by the longer lines at the theme park. Don't get me wrong, it is a great thing, but... a two minute line up to get on Drop Zone is a tough thing to give up.

    • Re:Celebrations In HK (Score:5, Interesting)

      by 1u3hr ( 530656 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @09:39PM (#6380496)
      We went to Ocean Park a couple of weeks ago. It was great to just walk on to any ride we wanted to ... of course the park was losing millions and reduced its hours. And personally I lost a lot of money as classes I teach were cancelled due to SARS hysteria. Kids still have to have their temperature taken at school each morning before beig allowed to go in. At least they don't have to wear the silly facemasks now (these work to prevent spread if you're infected, but are little or no help in stopping you from gettng it, especially as most don't fit them tightly).
      • I went to Ocean Park in April, and thanks to SARS I didn't have to wait in line for any ride. It was interesting to see people wearing facemask in the park, and I even saw some people wearing mask to hike. Anyway, I would be less nervous if the government honestly reported SARS statistics.
    • On the bright side, Toronto has also been blessed with SARS Fest, $20 to see the stones, AC/DC, Guess Who, Rush, and dozens of other bands. Plus I saw the Dears today at SARS Square, aka Yonge-Dundas. It's a good time to be a music fan in Toronto.

  • One down... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by craenor ( 623901 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @09:25PM (#6380425) Homepage
    A million more to go. Until people, health officials and governments take outbreaks of this nature more seriously. We'll always be in danger from them. In a time when people couldn't just span the globe in a matter of hours, diseases like the flu still managed to kill 25 million people.

    Nowadays we are tied together by a lattice work of airlines and freedom of worldwide travel that make us so much more at risk. Of course, where do you draw the line? We need some serious concern, not worldwide paranoia.

    I'm not saying SARS was badly handled everywhere. I'm just saying that there may very well come a time in the future where another event starts just like one...but the ending will be much worse.

    • Slippery slope (Score:3, Insightful)

      by ObviousGuy ( 578567 )
      I'm not saying you're a homophobe, but your "solution" would at some point entail quarantining infected vectors. This would mean that if someone were to claim AIDS as an epidemic (which some already do) then millions of infected people would need to be separated from the uninfected population. Considering the demographics of AIDS infection, it is clear that large numbers of gay men would necessarily need to have their lives disrupted in order to meet quarantine requirements.

      Also if we consider that AIDS
      • HIV is different because a) it has a hard-to-detect incubation time of often several years before developing into AIDS, b)it is already endemic, and c) it lasts a long time, but is eventually terminal.

        If there were only a few hundred cases, with easily identifiable, early signs, and a short quarantine period, then absolutely that would be a solution.
      • Cuba anyone? The only country that I know of that quarantines people with HIV.

    • Re:One down... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by mdielmann ( 514750 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @10:48PM (#6380796) Homepage Journal
      Of course, isolation is a two-edged sword. It gives us protection from more dangerous diseases, but it also allows mutations that are sufficiently unique to form without immunity to go along with it. The flu is a perfect exmple. For the last 20 or 30 years, scientists have been predicting another major outbreak, in epidemic proportions. But it just doesn't happen, and they keep saying "real soon, now".

      Sometimes, I question that. Maybe the reason we don't see them any more is that we aren't isolated for very many generations from any particular strain of the flu, and so it never has a chance to gain a large advantage over our immune systems. Hence, no epidemics.

      I'm not saying this is a fact, but if you look at most of the epidemics we have nowadays, they fall into the following categories:
      • New diseases (for people at least), which almost no one has immunity to (AIDS, SARS).
      • Older diseases which are fairly virulent, but never seem to spread beyond their locale (ebola, dangerous e. coli variants).
      • Variants of older diseases which are more virulent, but still are fairly benign (west nile). I question calling a disease epidemic when it only kills tens out of millions of the local population, but they labelled it...
      • Superbugs, which have mutated to have anti-biotic resistance (staph, etc.)


      Given my residence in North America, I'm not too worried about ebola, and it's class of diseases as described above. It's very hit-and-miss, and rarely spreads outside of it's initial range. This may be due to infection vectors or other things, but they never seem to really take over in general (thankfully).

      I'm also not too worried about West Nile, and others like it. Let's be realistic - if you're not very old, very young, or immune-compromised, your odds of catching it and dying (or even knowing) are lower than being struck by lightning.

      Superbugs and the new diseases that we have no immunity are a lot more worrisome. These are having the greatest impact worldwide, and have no simple cures. I'm aware that developing nations suffer a lot more deaths than either of these causes from very well-known diseases, but they are easily preventable through proper hygiene and such - that's why they disappeared in most industrialized countries.

      So, flus and such don't even get on my list. As long as we keep getting our regular exposures to the worldwide variants (and exporting ours ;), the risks of the population in general being introduced to a variant that is unrecognizable to our immune systems should be lower, in a way making the world a safer place, hopefully.

  • But is it too late, now that ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Professor D ( 680160 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @09:26PM (#6380430)
    The civet's out of the bag?

  • This proves to exemplify ... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 06, 2003 @09:31PM (#6380455)

    A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.

    Josef Stalin

  • Contained? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Mostly Harmless ( 48610 ) <mike_pete@yah[ ]com ['oo.' in gap]> on Sunday July 06, 2003 @09:31PM (#6380457) Homepage
    How can they say they have the disease contained if they say, in their next breath, that they expect it to come back again?

    • I too would question such an asessment, given the lengths that the Chinese govmt tried to cover it up, and the lengths that the US and Canadian goverments are suspected of underestimating or trying to curtail knowledge of how widely spread it was.

    • Re:Contained? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Idarubicin ( 579475 )
      How can they say they have the disease contained if they say, in their next breath, that they expect it to come back again?

      It's easy. The disease is contained (probably) in the human population. We know (probably) who all the infected individuals are, and they are being treated with appropriate precautions.

      SARS, however, is not a disease limited to humans. The original hosts are thought to be animals. Candidates include several mammalian species, as well as a number of birds. Right now, dozens of d

  • "SARS Contained" (Score:3, Insightful)

    by terrab0t ( 559047 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @09:32PM (#6380462)
    I like that. "SARS Contained". It has a nice ring to it.

    Now, could we have this plastered all over your fear mongering channel? I believe you call it CNN.

  • Blame Canada, blame Canada... *sings* (Score:4, Funny)

    by Alystair ( 617164 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @09:32PM (#6380466)
    Ehem, sorry, couldn't resist it... damn those Southpark kids!

  • Some perspective on SARS. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Christopher Thomas ( 11717 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @09:40PM (#6380501)
    This cartoon nicely sums up my opinion of the whole SARS thing:

    http://www.vgcats.com/vgc_comics/?strip_id=62 [vgcats.com]

    Practical effect here in Toronto:

    First outbreak: People were edgy for about two weeks, and a few wore masks. Anyone with a cold got nervous looks when they coughed. Then the novelty wore off and it was business as usual.

    Second outbreak: Nil.

    The number of people quarantined was about 1% of the city's population. The number of people who were actually sick was far lower. The number of people _dead_ was lower than the number of people murdered here in an average year, and we're a city not known for its violence.

    Take is seriously? Sure. Panic? Not justified.

    The real harm is that the attention on SARS has drawn attention away from things like West Nile Virus.
    • Were there really ~26,000+ people quarantined? (Assuming you just mean Toronto which has ~2.6m population IIRC).

      -psy
    • >The real harm is that the attention on SARS has >drawn attention away from things like West Nile >Virus. ... and J.Lo
    • Take is seriously? Sure. Panic? Not justified.

      The real harm is that the attention on SARS has drawn attention away from things like West Nile Virus.

      I remember watching CNN showing pictures from China and Toronto with everybody wearing masks as they walk down the street (in TO, anyways, it was clearly staged, or else from a VERY small sampling of the city). We know how the media can blow a lot of things out of proportion. Also, look at that one loopy cow out in Alberta, suddenly none of our Canadian be

    • Take a look [cdc.gov]. Also, keep in mind that most people that get west nile don't know they're sick [cdc.gov], and we still only have a death rate in diagnosed cases of about 7.5%. On a more sensationalist note, about as many people died in 9/11 as were diagnosed with West Nile in all of 2002, and even then, less than 300 died, out of about 300 million people. The flu(!) kills about 36000 per year [cdc.gov] in the US. It's going to be another 20 years or so before I worry about West Nile, and I'm paranoid ;)

  • but for how long? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by donutz ( 195717 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @09:41PM (#6380508) Homepage Journal
    Yay, they've gotten SARS contained, whatever that means. Meanwhile we've got monkeypox to deal with (damn those Wisconsin domesticated prairie dog owners!) and the West Nile virus is scheduled to reach California this summer...

    I guess we just have to deal with the fact that we're always going to have to deal with some disease or disaster. As much as we hate to admit it (even for steadfast believers in evolution) we are just animals, after all, and while we may have lots of medicines and other weapons on our side, nature has still got plenty of tricks up her sleeves too.

    • Re:but for how long? (Score:3, Informative)

      by Abcd1234 ( 188840 )
      Okay, this is starting to piss me off. Oh no, Monkeypox! Ahhh! It's related to smallpox! No! Wait, it's also related to chickenpox and is about as deadly. Yeah, but it gives you nasty sores! Which go away after a while... so the latest media scare is about a disease closely related to a common childhood infection which gives you sores and then goes away. How's that for media hysteria?

  • This could have all been avoided if... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    people would just leave the monkies alone!!!

  • SARS Contained... (Score:5, Funny)

    by EverDense ( 575518 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @10:02PM (#6380605) Homepage
    ...and let that be a lesson to you.
    Make sure the seals on the building you use for bio-weapon testing are solid.

    Who stole my tinfoil hat?
    • > Make sure the seals on the building you use for bio-weapon testing are solid.

      We don't use seals, they're just not smart enough, and every time the French guys start talking about them, the English guys start laughing. It's just too hard to get anything done with seals in Canada as long as the government continues to mandate a bilingual top-secret workforce.

      We do use Dolphins, though. And they're solid; hell, they're built like brick shit houses! Members of the elite Dolphin Guard even have special fi

  • Uh... It's Summer Folks... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by tlhIngan ( 30335 ) <slashdot&worf,net> on Sunday July 06, 2003 @10:03PM (#6380611)
    You know, the flu doesn't spread so virulently during the summer. Heck, most of the time flu season is during the winter. The flu doesn't hide during the summer, it's just dormant and afflicting only a few people.

    The question is, once fall/winter comes, will SARS spread again? And will it be worse now - i.e., is it dormant and people will unwittingly spread it to other people?

    It may be contained now, but is it really? Or if the weather turns a bit cold, we see more outbreaks?
    • You may not have noticed, but the earth is a sphere. While the bit you are in may be tilted towards the sun, the bit I'm in ain't. It's FREEZING here.

      Thankfully, we haven't had a SARS outbreak. Just the standard damn-it's-cold-ah-choo etc.

  • In other news (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 06, 2003 @10:03PM (#6380613)
    The container has been misplaced...

  • Good for Toronto... (Score:5, Funny)

    by stevens ( 84346 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @10:04PM (#6380621) Homepage
    ...bad for lunch.

    I live in Toronto, and all the great asian restaurants near work were half-empty instead of jam-packed due to SARS overreaction. I had never had such an easy time getting a table for lunch.

    Oh well... the dream is over.

  • This is what started this whole thing... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by canning ( 228134 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @10:06PM (#6380626) Homepage
    As soon as Toronto gets taken off the list there are massive celebrations and the same thing happened in Hong Kong. That's not a bad thing per say but I can't help but wonder if people are letting their guard down.

    The Singapore government has done a fantastic job in containing and combating SARS and they continue to do so even after being of the WHO's list for sometime now. Daily temperature checks for public servants and temperature scanning at all ports of entry continue. They've even gone far as to develop a SARS channel on cable TV. Bottom line, we have to continue to live but not live ignorantly.
  • When the terrorist biological weapon hits, releasing some robust, vaccine-resistant mutation of smallpox, whichever city it lands in will do its best to keep it under wraps so as not to damage its tourism industry. SARS was benign. I am not encouraged.

  • What's Really Funny (Score:4, Interesting)

    by TheCanucklehead ( 685802 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @10:27PM (#6380711)
    Is to remember when the WHO tried to announce that Malaria was eradicated from the earth.
    • remember when the WHO tried to announce that Malaria was eradicated from the earth.

      I don't remember that... was Townshend working as some sort of microbiologist at the time or something?
  • So this whole sars thing has effected me and my business. The apparent confusion that the world health organization has between declaring Toronto safe, not safe, and now safe until the next time comes down to simple marketing.

    It is no secret that the sars outbreak is a very serious thing brought to light by post-war news coverage that needs another headline. Much of the worry has been created by the media and really only effects tourisim.

  • Stephen Kings: SARS (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Unixinvid ( 643778 )
    I really worry about how we as a wealthy nation use anti-biotics like candy, for things like the common strep throat. When I see the SARS case I see somthing out of a Stephen King Novel with the plot of being pawns in someones game. If we had a better combined effort in sharing meds, technology we would have half of the problems that we are facing.
  • Are there any Slashdotters out there with first hand perspectives on the current SARS situation in China? I've been wondering why outbreaks have only 'occured' in the big cities. Do smaller outbreaks in less well known cities not get picked up by Western media? With such densely populated cities, plus a few months of a head start in having SARS around, I find it rather remarkable that it was contained at all.

    Heck, even Toronto had a second outbreak while everyone was still on alert. Mind you, that's n
    • I used to live in Shenzhen ,China during the SARS outbreak. THe government hid it for most of the time, but some of my co-workers were telling me about this"flu" that was going around. As a result everyone bought vinagar and its price went up. After all the panic Hong Kong was getting the news and the people that i talked to about it, such as teachers , said that the "flu" went with the weather and went to Hong Kong and nothing to worry about. However, they were wrong. The outbreak at Amoy Gardens was from

  • Medicine = Life (Score:3, Informative)

    by heli0 ( 659560 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @10:48PM (#6380795)
    "Taiwan had reported 674 cases of SARS and 84 deaths -- the highest death total after China, with 348 deaths and Hong Kong with 298. The United States reported 73 cases but no deaths.

    SARS contained across the globe [sfgate.com]

    • Re:Medicine = Life (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      No. The reason there were no deaths in the US is it didn't spread in hospitals. The vast majority of deaths are when the disease spreads to the sick and elderly with chronic problems. The cases in the US are pretty much people who contracted the disease elsewhere and were young/healthy enough before hand to travel.

      Besides, what makes you think you have better medicine in the US than they have in Hong Kong. The US health care system is crap.

  • Is it really contained? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Qweezle ( 681365 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @10:51PM (#6380807) Journal
    Personally, I'm skeptical as to whether the disease is really contained...I will believe that Toronto is safe for now, but I disagree with anyone saying that China's SARS is contained. China is a huge nation, and I feel that if SARS went largely untreated over there(which is likely), then there could most certainly be a threat for people in China, and travelers, and for that matter all Asian countries. Now, everyone is saying how China's SARS outbreak is largely over, and I disagree. I think the Chinese government is hiding more than they wish to reveal. China is a budding superpower, and they wouldn't want something like this to tarnish their reputation, so they hide it. There's more to this than the media's telling us, I feel... _____________________

  • Yay for Symantec (Score:3, Funny)

    by Cobralisk ( 666114 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @11:26PM (#6380939)
    I personally give credit to their anit-virus software. Why else would this be on /.?

  • A couple books worth reading (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MichaelCrawford ( 610140 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @11:38PM (#6380979) Homepage Journal
    There are a couple of books worth reading to help understand the problem of emerging diseases. The shorter, somewhat sensationalistic one is The Hot Zone. The author characterizes the human race, when considering the availability of global airline travel, as a trillion pounds of meat just waiting for a virus.

    A much better, more informative book, also much longer, is Lauri Garrett's The Coming Plague. I believe it won the Pulitzer. I had the pleasure of hearing Ms. Garrett speak at the Capitola Book Cafe - she graduated from nearby UC Santa Cruz.

    I later heard Ms. Garrett speak on the radio regarding public health. She said a survey found that a majority of Americans, when asked, said that they were opposed to public health.

    (They were confused, and the confusion is unfortunate. The US doesn't have publicly funded medical care like Canada does, but public health is the reason the nation isn't swept with plagues every couple years. Things like mass vaccination, sewer treatment, mosquito abatement and the like. Americans are too dimwitted to know that that's what public health means.)

    Both books talk quite a bit about Ebola, and The Hot Zone describes an event when a bunch of research monkeys were imported to the U.S. that were infected with an Ebola-like virus.

  • Policy issues (Score:5, Interesting)

    by John Bayko ( 632961 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @11:43PM (#6380996)
    One thing mentioned in the article but glossed over is the fact that a SARS patient was in Vancouver about the same time as in Toronto, but the information on this newly identified disease wasn't passed down to Toronto workers as it was in Vancouver.

    In Canada, as in the U.S, health care in general is a provincial responsibility (with parts delegated to the county or municipal level), with federal assistance. The government of Ontario is currently conservative, small-govermnent (i.e. pro-cutbacks) one for the past decade or so. One of the things that were cut back were the disease researchers whose job it was to identify new diseases, develop tests and diagnostic procedures for them, and distribute this information. A typical politician, the Health Car Minister justified this by asking "what, is a brand new disease going to magically appear?".

    Conversely, the past decade in BC has been a big-government (i.e. pro-spending) one, until recently (when a large fraction of the public sector was amputated). However, it has a more fully funded health care system, and was able to quickly react to the news of a new disease.

    With Ontario's "immune system" essentially crippled, it fell on other provinces (including BC, where the responsible corona virus DNA was first sequenced) and the federal government to pick up the slack.

    The relative merits of a mainly publically or mainly privately funded health care system can be debated, but one thing that any government should realize, regardless of it's political philosophy, is that whatever system it prefers, the one that exists must be fully supported even if it's counter to the party principles.

    Another lesson to be learned is that the world is becoming too mobile to leave health care as a purely local responsibility. In the case of Canada, Ontario might have been helpless except for the federal research facilities near Winnipeg, Manitoba, because of its health and safety negligence (the same negligence was responsible for water safety problems in Walkerton which led to a similar number of deaths). Without effective research, the outbreak could have spread country-wide.

    National governments may not be accountable enough either. China's government was downright deceitful over the spread of SARS in that country, and without international pressure and some wistle-blowers risking their jobs, the disease could still be spreading there.

    The fallout from these problems would not have been limited to single nations. If SARS had spread across Canada, the U.S would have had to choose between closing the border (which is the single largest flow of imports and exports for both countries), seriously crippling the U.S economy in the middle of trying to recover from a recession (maybe enough to make it a depression, and killing G.W.Bush's chances of re-election for good), or risking the spread into a wider population (and crippling the economy in another way).

    The World Health Organization is important, but it is only an advisory body - it has no authority to influence policy or implement operational changes in health care delivery. As a result, government from countries (China and others) to local (Ontario and others) have become holes in a global system, purely due to their own short-sightedness. These holes threaten world health these days.

    Further, there are entire regions where health care is inadequate simply because of economic poverty. Wealthy countries find it convenient to ignore the conditions in places like these, but it should be clear by now that those conditions can cost the wealthy countries billions or trillions of dollars of their own wealth due to the spread of diseases which are controllable. SARS (limited to countries with fairly well-developed health care systems) was a few pennies compared to the economic costs of AIDS (originating in countries with crumbling hospitals able to care for only a handful of their populations, most of whom never see a hospital in their entire lives).

    Obviously, it's in everyo

  • ... but GAMERA Unleashed!

  • Antibacterial Craze (Score:4, Insightful)

    by cmallinson ( 538852 ) * <chris@mallinsBOHRon.ca minus physicist> on Monday July 07, 2003 @12:17AM (#6381117) Homepage
    If we continue using antibacterial products EVERYWHERE, we will have a whole lot of diseases far worse than SARS on our hands. Don't people understand that by using mild antibacterial agents, we are helping disease evolve into strains that we may never be able to deal with?

  • Are you people idiots? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by VPN3000 ( 561717 ) on Monday July 07, 2003 @12:43AM (#6381202)
    Oh dear God, the people posting messages stating that SARS was over-hyped and nothing serious are really, really looking like twits.

    First off, if the 'media hype' had not taken place, countries would have not been pressured to take measures (by scared civilians) to control it. Thus, SARS would have spread to a MUCH larger percentage of the population. 10% deathrate doesn't sound like revelations or anything, but think of your elderly parents and grand parents. They would likely have a very tough time. Remember, the 10% if overall. That can mean 19-35 year olds have a 3% chance of death, but elderly could have something like 85-90% since their immune systems can't cope.

    Secondly, scientists still don't understand the virus. Wouldn't you like to give them a little extra time to come to grips with how it works and what gets rid of it before you talk out of your ass about how it's not serious?

    Third, this is a virus. Not a bacterial infection. It's quite likely this will become a recurring disease. You take drugs to help fight it, most gets killed off, some mutates, goes to sleep for a few months, then re-infects with the mutated virus; then is likely harder to battle.

    Finally, did you people who think it's not serious bother to read about the condition of SARS patients who have recovered? Didn't think so. They may have survived, but most have permanent scarring in their lungs. You want that to happen to you and your family? Want to have to wait and wonder, dreading the next 'season'? What if it comes back? You might not be able to survive a second infection since your lungs are still damaged from the first one.

    I don't mean to sound offensive, but what sort of idiot wants to take chances? It really bothers me that 'geeks' would feel this way, considering we are supposed to be some of the smarter ones. Guess I was wrong...

  • Communication is of the essence for the prevention of the spread of diease.
    When is somebody going to set up an irc server here?

    irc://irc.who.int

    Could somebody near the centre of the action tell Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland [who.int], or her Dr Jong-wook Lee [who.int], her replacement, about irc. A Slashcode server would not be a bad idea either.

    It might save quite a few lives one day.

  • SARS & Y2K (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Scarblac ( 122480 ) <slashdot@gerlich.nl> on Monday July 07, 2003 @10:18AM (#6383003) Homepage

    You guys remind of the people who say that the whole uproar over Y2K wasn't necessary. Nothing happened, so that proves the whole prevention effort was unnecessary, right? All overblown hype!

    But a lot of stuff was actually fixed. There would have been problems if it hadn't been attacked like that. Of course the media was too sensationalistic about it, but Y2K was a problem, or at least it could have been.

    SARS turned out not to be that big of a problem. There was a huge containment effort and much media hype. People keep pointing out that the flu kills many more people.

    So what do they suggest should have been done? Just give them anti biotics and see what happens? The reason SARS was not such a huge problem at the end is precisely because of the huge containment effort. What if SARS had been allowed to spread so that it had affected just 1% of the people who get flu every year? Major disaster, and by that time it would have been impossible to contain.

    I think WHO did exactly the right thing, especially since so little was known about the virus. Most diseases take centuries to wipe out, we actually managed to contain SARS before it became widespread! Sounds to me that's exactly what we have organizations like the WHO for, and it actually worked.

    Of course the media hype meant that the economy was hurt more than it had to be. It wasn't perfect. But I think we can be pretty happy, overall.

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