This is not a problem of Singapore, Hong Kong or China, it is a problem of every country and every one, so we have the right to express our point of view.

If you really care about your friends, recommend this page to them. This page contains a lot of valuable information and links about SARS. Some day sooner or later, this knowledge can save their lives

 

Today
28th May

SARS focus shifts to Canada
Asian SARS hotspots reported fewer infections, with Hong Kong recording no new cases for the first time since March as global concern over the epidemic shifted back to Canada
.Authorities in Toronto said they were investigating what could be the country's first new infections in more than a month, adding two recent deaths in a hospital there may have been caused by SARS and that more than 20 other people may have been exposed to the virus. "We are assuming the worst," said Donald Low, director of microbiology at Mount Sinai Hospital.

SARS like viruses found in animals sold as Chinese delicacies
Are you a Chinese food junkie ? Civet is one of the main ingredients in the exotic wildlife dish "dragon-tiger-phoenix soup". The soup is flavoured with chrysanthemum petals and includes shreds of civet cat and snake. Some of the first victims of SARS were chefs or people who had contact with exotic animals.

Research teams in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China have today announced the results of a joint study of wild animals taken from a market, in southern China, selling wild animals for human consumption. The study detected several coronaviruses closely related genetically to the SARS coronavirus in two of the animal species tested masked palm civet and racoon-dog. (Paguma larvata & Nyctereutes procynoides or Uguduwa  & Kalawedda in Sinhalese). The study also found that one additional species (Chinese ferret badger) elicited antibodies against the SARS coronavirus. These and other wild animals are traditionally considered delicacies and are sold for human consumption in markets throughout southern China. Sequencing of viruses isolated from these animals demonstrated that, with the exception of a small additional sequence, the viruses are identical with the human SARS virus.  The study provides a first indication that the SARS virus exists outside a human host. However, many fundamental questions remain. Samples were taken from one market only.

Earlier this week, Chandra Wickramasinghe, of Cardiff's Centre for Astrobiology, suggested the Sars virus may even have fallen to Earth from space, but this is not a view widely shared by scientists.

Previous

Singapore has launched a SARS TV channel which will reach nearly a million households after just 19 days of planning.

Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng,  said: "It highlights the issue we have to face today - we cannot avoid and escape, the problem is still here with us, we cannot pretend it's not here and bury our head in the sand - we have to recognise it, face up to it and confront it."

150 resign from two Sars-hit hospitals  TAIWAN - After two days of record increases in new Sars case, medical staff, citing family pressure and inadequate protection, have quit en masse from two Sars-hit hospitals, dealing a fresh blow to Taiwan's efforts to contain the deadly virus.

WHO wary of steep drop in cases The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it remained wary of a dramatic decline in the number of Sars cases in China after just 12 new infections were reported yesterday, saying it had no idea how the figures were being reached. 'We're cautious, and we're wary about the numbers,'  saying that there was concern that they could lead people to lower their guard prematurely. WHO officials fear that patients with milder symptoms of Sars are being excluded as probable cases.

WHO says Singapore to remain on SARS-hit list 19th May

Chinese Health Ministry reports 28 new SARS cases There were 28 new severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) cases and two new deaths between 10:00 a.m. May 17 and 10:00 a.m. May 18 on the Chinese mainland, the Ministry of Health reported Sunday

  Singapore criticised for allowing SARS passengers to board flights

Malaysian health officials have criticised Singapore for allowing passengers with SARS symptoms to board flights after two such passengers were detected here.

On May 11, a 19-year-old from Japan who had visited Singapore was found to have a temperature of 39 degrees Celsius while on transit at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

A 29-year-old Bangladeshi businessman was also detected with a fever and cough at KLIA on his way back to Dhaka after travelling to Singapore.

Both have been hospitalised.

"We want to protect both countries as we want to stop the spread of the disease, but if there are weaknesses in the screening, they must be rectified as we do not want those with symptoms to board aircraft and cross the causeway," Ismail said.

If checks revealed the latest case was indeed a failure in screening procedures, he "would like Singapore to look into what it was doing," the Star quoted Ismail as saying. 18/5/2003

Suspected SARS Patient Dead

Sinsalese News paper "Divina" reported that, a 27 year old women died from SARS like symptoms, 2 days after her admission to the hospital at Jaffna, The woman is from ChavaKachcheri  Northern part of Sri Lanka. According to the report, a  few days before falling ill, she had been visited by a number of family members from overseas SARS affected countries for an occasion of a Tamil New Year family celiberation. Protective clothing and equipments were air lifted to Jaffna from Colombo. 17/5/2003

Nine new SARS deaths in Asia as Chinese premier warns situation 'grim. China, Hong Kong and Singapore recorded a total of nine new deaths from SARS and more than 70 new infections,

Premier Jiabao Wen warned that the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak was not under control and could spread further, especially in the countryside.

"Looking at the nationwide situation, SARS prevention and control work has attained certain achievements, but the situation is still grim," the Xinhua news agency quoted Wen as saying Sunday during a weekend visit to northern Shanxi, one of the worst hit provinces.

Taiwan will place video-conferencing equipment in the homes of some of the 10,083 people quarantined for SARS to monitor their whereabouts in a desperate bid to contain the spread of the virus.

Dr. David Ho, an internationally renowned expert on HIV/AIDS, teamed up with Hong Kong University researchers to study new treatments for the coronavirus, identified by the WHO as causing SARS.

Ho told reporters research had found that a synthetic protein called a peptide, which was tailored for the coronavirus

China, Hong Kong, Taiwan report new SARS deaths -The WHO has upgraded the Taiwanese capital Taipei to the category of "high" local transmission of SARS, the organisation's website said Saturday, as the government unveiled new measures to limit the spread of the disease. In an indication that the situation in the capital Beijing, remained grave, authorities reported 581 more people had been placed under quarantine, bringing the total to 19,189.

In neighbouring Hong Kong, health officials announced they have adjusted their treatment of SARS as they revealed that 10 percent of patients thought to have recovered from the virus could suffer lasting damage to their lungs. Director of Health, Yeoh Eng-kiong, said the controversial anti-viral drug Ribavirin -- which US experts say is not effective in tackling SARS -- would continue to be used in the first stage of the illness.

But in some cases the protease inhibitor Kaletra would be used singly or in combination with Ribavirin to tackle virus replication after it had been shown in laboratory tests to be efficient in battling the virus, he said.

Health officials also revealed for the first time that 10 percent of convalescent patients did not completely recover from SARS and continued to suffer effects such as shortness of breath caused by damage to lung tissue.

11/5/2003

Russia to ban all flights to China in bid to halt SARS epidemic- The Russian Civil Aviation Authority has sent a telegram to all airlines which fly to China, including Hong Kong, and Taiwan, ordering them to stop selling passenger flights and air freight and postal services to those destinations, the Interfax news agency reported

New Illness Raises Alarm in Cambodia - The unknown disease has killed seven of the 392 people infected in the villages of Borghok and Ping in northeastern Cambodia. Doctors visiting Borghok and Ping said the disease was like nothing they had seen before. The symptoms included fever, coughing, breathing problems -- all signs of SARS. But the victims also suffered from diarrhea and maintained normal white blood cell counts, something not usually found in SARS patients. Associated Press journalists visiting Borghok recently were told that six residents died within four days of the outbreak, some within 24 hours of falling ill

China puts 10,000 more in quarantine after new Sars outbreakThe quarantining of 10,000 people in Nanjing is a desperate attempt to stem the outbreak before it reaches the city limits of Shanghai, which has reported only a few cases. The move increases the number of people in quarantine, which is said to be somewhere between 20,000 and 28,000. Precise figures are hard to compile because not everyone released from quarantine is registered. 07/5/2003

Nurses abandon China’s hospitals to escape Sars HUNDREDS of hospital staff in Beijing are quitting their jobs for fear of falling ill while looking after Sars patients.To combat the problem in the capital’s hospitals, many workers have been given up to tenfold pay increases to persuade them to stay 7/05/2003

A fresh wave of SARS riots hit China Fearing that the virus would spread to their areas, villagers in two remote parts of China destroyed SARS quarantine centres

Sars: Biggest danger is to relax now - 'Our biggest danger now is... to relax the efforts which we have put in,' says Dr Tan.

Malaysian ship with 10 sick Indian crew members anchors in Hong Kong waters - The ship, Bunga Belawis Satu, had departed from Bangkok, Thailand on April 28 heading for the southern Chinese port of Huangpu in Guangzhou when the ship master reported 10 of the 24 crew members of Indian origin had fallen ill. The ship master had reported to Hong Kong port authorities that sick crew members had shown SARS-like symptoms including a cough, fever and aching joints. The ship was believed to have also visited several other ports in the region including Singapore more.

SARS feared in 38 US states - HEALTH authorities say they are aware of 56 likely cases of SARS in the United States, and 233 others may be infected with the potentially deadly virus. One of the probable cases was a healthcare worker who had provided care to a SARS patient, the report said. Another was a household contact of a SARS patient. The remaining 54 had travelled to mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Hanoi or Toronto.

President calls for "People's War" against SARS- President Hu Jintao has called for a "People's War" against SARS and urged local authorities at all levels to be aware of the importance of the need to control the epidemic. China Daily

No anti-SARS measures at BIA, say passengers

While authorities say all possible steps are taken to prevent the deadly SARS virus from entering the country passengers coming through the Katunayake airport express surprise at the non-existence of precautionary measures.

When contacted by "The Island" the airport Public Health Officer said that a team including doctors are stationed at the arrival gates to detect suspected SARS carriers. He said that only those with symptoms like cough or a running nose are questioned by the team. He also said that passengers arriving from Singapore and Hong Kong are given a form of declaration to determine whether they have SARS symptoms.

However passengers say there is no proper method at the Katunayake airport to detect any possible carrier and no one is being questioned to that effect. (Island 2/5/2003)

SPECULATION ON SARS SOURCE Rumours abound of link to bio-weapons. Although most reports favour a natural origin for Sars, a bio-weapon link should not be ruled out, according to Mr Richard Fisher, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington-based think-tank. 2/5/03

WHO believes SARS can be eradicated from humans

Six days and six nights. That's all the time construction crews had to erect a 1,000-bed SARS isolation hospital. Hundreds of bricklayers worked on a 3.5-metre wall surrounding the facility that will help keep contagious patients in. Alarms were already mounted along finished sections of the wall. Surveillance cameras had been installed. Each room has an air-conditioner, new TV set and a hatch for food and medicine to be inserted without sending anyone in

Acting Beijing Mayor Wang Qishan said at a press conference on SARS control on Wednesday that despite progress made in the battle against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the situation in Beijing remains severe  (China Daily  30/4/2003)

NZ records first SARS victim Ministry director of public health Colin Tukuitonga said that, following discussions with the SARS technical advisory group, details of the case had been forwarded to the World Health Organisation. – AFP 

India eyes SARS-hit China’s exports

Another 4 labs for SARS-testing soon , The laboratories would be set in the already existing centres at the National Institute of Cholera and other Enteric Diseases (Kolkata), Tuberclosis Research Centre and Lung Infection Unit ( Chennai), Entrovirus Research Centre (Mumbai) and National Aids Research Centre (Pune). 29/4/2003

The man who drove the De Silva family from Ambarnath to Pune has tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), taking the total number of cases in Maharashtra in India to five, according to state Health Minister Digvijay Khanvilkar. (Indian Express 29/4/2003)

Vietnam becomes first to tame SARS Pascale Brudon, country representative in Vietnam for WHO said: ‘‘We have been able to show that there is hope that SARS can be contained.’’ (Thank you Vietnam - good Job !) 29/4/2003

Post-mortem results of Dr Alex Chao, Consultant Vascular Surgeon with the Department of General Surgery, SGH DR. Alex was infected by a critically ill patient, passed away on 25 April 03 - The results, which are well documented, could be of interest to medical professionals in diagnostics.

TARS: Epidemic Caused by Eating Meat?, Like SARS, the annual influenzas that sicken and kill thousands every year almost always originate in animals in southern China and Hong Kong.

 

 

If you really care about your friends, recommend this page to them. This page contains a lot of valuable information.

Face masks are good anti-SARS protection - Doctors/ Friday May 2, 7:58 AM

LONDON, May 2 (Reuters) - Hong Kong doctors said on Friday face masks were essential protection against SARS, but paper ones should be avoided because they would be vulnerable to droplet transmission of the virus.

The doctors, from five hospitals in Hong Kong which is one of the world's hardest hit areas, said masks had helped prevent the spread of the illness in staff treating patients.

"Masks seem to be essential for protection," Dr W H Seto, of the Queen Mary Hospital, said in a report published in the Lancet medical journal.

"This finding fits well with droplets transmission because droplets are generated at the face level, making the mask crucial for protection," said Seto.

(But paper) masks, being easily wet with saliva, are never recommended as a precaution against droplets," he said.

The doctors said their findings suggested transmission of SARS, an infectious respiratory illness that causes a dry cough, fever and pneumonia, was not airborne.

Seto and his colleagues questioned hospital staff about wearing surgical masks, gloves and gowns against SARS and how often they washed their hands to determine which methods were most effective.

"Fewer staff who wore masks and washed their hands became infected compared to those who didn't," Seto said.

Since it first emerged in China late last year, SARS has killed nearly 400 people and infected thousands around the world.

The virus is spread by coughing and may also be transmitted on solid surfaces. It has also been found in faecal matter, suggesting it could be spread through sewage.

China has the highest number of cases, followed by Hong Kong but the disease has spread beyond Asia through international air travel.

 

On the Trail of the BUG - A must see chart (Specially so if you are a health professional) put out by Singapore  Gov. showing how one 60 year old patient had infected 21 health staff, 10 patients and 12 visitors. 

View the Fighting SARS Together booklet. (PDF) A handy reference guide in four languages including Tamil and English, which has been issued to every Singapore household.

SARS FAQs - information on symptoms, treatment and quarantine. From the Singapore Health Ministry

Why Viruses are Hard to Kill -The latest SARS science 
SARS.com.sg  Finally!! a very comprehensive news site.

 

 

SARS: What you need to know - Information from CTV
World Health Organisation - Latest Information

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In Pictures: Chronology of the SARS outbreak  BBC.
S
ars 'spread by cockroaches'
BBC
SARS: Updates and Alerts
- from the Australian Department of Health and Aging
S
ARS: you can help by taking sensible precautions
- press release by Singapore's Health Ministry. 
S
ARS FAQs
- information on symptoms, treatment and quarantine. From the Singapore Health Ministry
S
ergical Masks why
? How ? and professional advice

News Special: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Outbreak
  Yahoo. (The Most Important link)
WHO Medical Service Conference Is there a risk associated with merchandise from the affected areas?

Health directives to all hospitals, medical centres SARS

FREE SARS TEST

A new SARS thermal scanner is now installed at Katunayake Airport in Sri Lanka at a cost of  Rs 7.5 Million 28/May 2003

First data on stability and resistance of SARS coronavirus compiled by members of WHO laboratory network 

  • Virus is stable in faeces (and urine) at room temperature for at least 1-2 days.
  • Virus is more stable (up to 4 days) in stool from diarrhea patients (which has higher pH than normal stool).
  • It can stay alive indefinitely at low temperatures (In simple words, meaning that, It can survive in supermarket freezers or  refrigerated food imports from affected areas, such as fruits& vegetables, ice-creams etc.)
  • Reduction in virus concentration by one log only at stable room temperature for 2 days. This would indicate that the virus is more stable than the known human coronaviruses under these conditions. ( Meaning that, It can survive for days in door knobs, tables, bus, train or plane seats,  coines and bank notes)
  • Virus loses infectivity after exposure to different commonly used disinfectants and fixatives. (This is a good news)

 

Special Editorial: 2  (9/5/2003)

The Good news, the Bad News and the very Bad News

The  first good news is, according to WHO figures, except China, all the other countries  are successful in containing the disease, the second good new is that, according to the lab results, the house hold disinfectants are effective in killing the virus within 5 minutes. The third good news is, that the wealthy countries with advance health care systems can cope with an SARS outbreak without suffering a single death. 

(See WHO Chart -Cumulative Number of Reported Probable Cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome pub. 8/5/2003)

Following are the bad News:

The virus can survive for days in door knobs, tables, bus, train or plane seats,  coines and bank notes.

It can also survive in supermarket freezers or  refrigerated food imports from affected areas, such as fruits& vegetables, ice-creams etc.

The death rate is slowly going up started from 5% later become 10% , 15% and now some say up to  20%  can be expected

(See the First data on stability and resistance of SARS coronavirus compiled by members of WHO laboratory network )

The third bad news is that, Singapore scientists have discovered that the SARS virus has mutated since it was discovered three months ago, and now there are two different strains of the virus. A second virus strain, with a different genetic sequence, travelled into Beijing and Northen China.

This means a person who recovers from one strain of SARS, may still catch the second strain.

The greatest  bad news of all is that China appears to be loosing the ground on it's battle to contain the disease. There is no argument  about the fact that , after the fall of USSR, China is the most powerful nation on earth apart from USA and the might of China is unthinkably immense. If China finds that going is rough, then  the situation is much serious for every body. 

Why Do I say that ?

Lat us look at the facts, China has one of the largest populations on earth, the major cities like Beijing and Shanghai have huge population densities, which contains immigrant workers from rural areas who are unregistered and working there illegally, hence hard to trace once they escape from quarantine orders,  the advancement of China is un homogenous meaning that there are rural areas with primitive third world conditions and rugged terrains where you may have to travel hundreds of km. for the nearest medical centre.  China has a large border with other countries. USA, UK, Australia, Canada and many other countries have huge Chinese populations (Towns) in the middle of their cities, therefore a huge amount of travel to and from China is happening daily which can be impossible to regulate. 

On the light of the above, if china looses the war on SARS  then it is lost for every one of us. So hold the breath, leave your political differences of opinion aside and pray that China to be successful in containing this disease within coming weeks before it gets established and become endemic. 

If the disease becomes endemic, then the whole world as we know now, will be changed

Lakshman 9/5/2003

Special Editorial SARS (9 April 2003)

Prevention of the Spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome

Coronaviruses, rather like the influenza viruses, can co-infect pigs or other animals, there can be more than one virus infecting at a time in the same cell. And that the new virus that is produced from that cell can have genes, nucleic acid from one of those viruses and nucleic acid from another, and so it becomes a totally new virus. And in picking up those new genes, it can change its ability to infect other hosts. Hence we may be looking at an infection having occurred in animals which has now changed the virus to allow it to more readily infect human beings. 

Wrongful use of antibiotics, incorrect farming practices, destruction of habitats and extensive forest clearings are causing the mutations of previously harmless virus types  in to harmful forms at an increasingly alarming rate. Therefore this will not be the first and last instance we will be hearing about pandemics and super-spreaders in this century. 

You need a sneeze of a single infected person, to cripple a country . Anyway the world will not be the same from now on if , China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada and the other currently affected countries, can not holt the spread of this dangerous disease with in the next few weeks as the rate of infection multiplies exponentially making it impossible to keep it under control after passing a certain threshold. And it is also possible that some countries  are  not revealing the actual numbers of infected ,due to the fear of economic losses in sectors such as tourism and export, if so the whole world is in for a disaster un parallel in human history.

At a time when there was very few fast modes of air and sea transport, "Spanish" flu which swept the world in 1918 -19 killed over 20million people. SARS with an estimated death rate of 4% can cause around 720000 deaths in Sri Lanka alone in a worse case scenario.

With Singapore is also effected, sooner or later, within weeks, not months, SARS will be knocking in the door step of countries like Lanka and India and there is no doubt about that. 

It will be a very foolish and fatal mistake to wait until appearance of first few cases. It is of national interest to formulate a nation wide coordinated action plan to stop the flu like disease getting a foot hold in the country until an effective treatment or a vaccine is developed, tested and produced in mass scale by scientist at WHO. Which could be at least 6-12 months in to the future. Though such a vaccination is developed, just think of the staggering cost of vaccination in covering the whole population of even a small country like Lanka.

Recent history of internal war and destruction shows us the short sightedness and the monumentally flawed decision making ability of the politicians and bureaucrats in the country called Lanka who were brilliant enough to steer the once prosperous country in to the ranks of one of the poorest nations in the world.

At least in this instance they must show the farsightedness and the leadership qualities in preventing a disastrous breakdown of the health services of the country.

First, The leaders of this country must understand that the power is not in money, properties or other material things. Power is in knowledge. Same is true in this case too. And  the allocation of money or resources alone will not do the job. 

It is imperative to arm the first line of defense, the health care workers and health professionals with the up to date knowledge of the disease and also properly train them in the art of how to take care of themselves, as there is a marked high rate of infections among health care workers. Protect the Health care workers and the Health system and they in turn will protect the public.

There must be a plan to educate the people of preventative methods ( such as face masks, hand washing, eridication of cockroaches ect) and also to quarantine houses, villages, hospitals or in case cities. Each village should have a trained volunteer unit with at least one protective bio hazard suit and a ventilation unit to respond for an emergency in such a way to stop infected people using public transport and go in to crowed clinics for treatments. Like bring a doctor to home and supply them with emergency rations, sealing and separating with plastic sheeting and masking tapes the room of the patient, a method of creating negative pressure in the room such as a mobile reverse air-conditioning unit with sterilization method at end like passing it through a gas burner etc.

Priority actions recommended by WHO are: The early recognition and treatment of cases,  stringent infection control measures in hospitals and clinics, prompt reporting of suspected cases, meticulous investigation and contact tracing in the community, public awareness campaigns and education.

The cost ? For a country like Lanka which  can afford to feed a useless bunch of MP's every day in the Parliament Canteen for 10 RS (US$ 10 cents) with a 5star hotel class buffet meal and supply a record number of Ministers  and MP each 3-4 vehicles and police escorts, surely there could be a way to finance this too, or else the PM or the President must be able to convince Ministers and MP's to divert those resources in the face of a national health emearency if they really want to show that, they do care about the public.

I do sincerly hope that,  my above letter  will help on the way of prevention saving at least one life somewhere in the world. 

Lakshman Abeykoon M. Sc. (Moscow University) Grad. Certificate. (Melbourne University) Graduate Diploma in Library & Information Services Management (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology)
9/4/2003

 
SARS Information
How SARS infects body
Australian Dept of Health
UK Dept of Health
Malaysia Dept of Health
Center for Disease Control
Medline  

Reports & Updates
Comm. Diseases -Australia
(SARS) FAQs
Health Alerts for Medical Practitioners
NSW Chief Health Officer
Severe Acute Resp.Syn.
Australian Doctor
Health Canada

World Health Org. 
Severe Ac. Res. Syndrome
Disease Outbreak News
Situation Updates (sars)
Influenza

Features
It's the flu we should dread
Masks fail to hide the fear
Flu a 'killer virus' 
World alert over 'killer flu' 

Travel Warnings
DFAT Travel Bulletins
Int. travel and health
Travel Adv. China, SE-Asia
Canadian Trav. Med. Prog. 

Govt. Health Depts
Hong Kong Dept of Health
Singapore Dept of Health
Canada Dept of Health

Referances
Center for the Study of
Emerging Infections
Infectious Diseases
Society of America
International Society for
Infectious Diseases

 
SARS: Background

A deadly respiratory infection, provisionally called "severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)," is spreading quickly around the world. Reports have come in from Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Romania, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, and Vietnam, prompting the World Health Organization to issue a global alert for the first time in more than a decade.

SARS Death Rate
The death rate for SARS has increased. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), age group and the presence of other illness or underlying disease have an incredible impact on the death rate. Right now the death rate for SARS breaks down like this: more..
Age Group Death Rate
24 yrs or younger 1%
25-44 yrs 6%
45-64 yrs 15%
65 yrs or older 50%

Singapore launches world's first public service SARS TV channel  22/5/03

Singapore has launched a SARS TV channel which will reach nearly a million households after just 19 days of planning.

Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng,  said: "It highlights the issue we have to face today - we cannot avoid and escape, the problem is still here with us, we cannot pretend it's not here and bury our head in the sand - we have to recognise it, face up to it and confront it."

Capsule maker makes hay amid SARS panic
 Japan Times 22/5/03
A Tokyo company that manufactures enclosed capsules used to transport infectious patients has been swamped with inquiries amid the SARS scare. 

Isolators use negative air pressure technology to prevent air from leaking out, which prevents medical staff and others from becoming infected from dangerous pathogens like severe acute respiratory syndrome.The isolator can run on a battery for about two hours, and a car battery and other power sources can also be used, according to the company.

There are holes in both sides of the capsule for emergency treatment, including administering injections and drip infusions, and for an oxygen tank

My Advice: (Take it or leave it) 24/4/2003

How can we stop people Panicking ?

Today the head lines are about people panicking in Beijing. Why they are panicking ?. People panic when they realize that they are unprepared for a crisis. 

Do you panic, if you know that you are well prepared to face an emergency ? No. So how can we stop them panicking ? By preparation in advance. It is the duty of the all governments and media to prepare the people well in advance so that the people will be confident to meet the situation. The lesson that should be learned from China is, that covering up the real situation from people may ultimately lead to panic and once it start happening the things will become chaotic and difficult to control. 

My advice (Take it or leave it) 21/4/2003

To people who live in Sri Lanka {in fact in an any country}:  It is still not too late to avert a disaster in Sri Lanka and other countries, 
What People must do:
1. Understand the seriousness of this health crisis. This is not a problem of Singapore, Hong Kong or China, it is a problem of every country and every one, so we have the right to express our point of view.
2. Realize gravity of this situation and write, talk, phone, nag, force, every body in the government to take appropriate action
3. Write, talk, phone or force these warring parties of Tamils, Sinhalese and Muslims to stop this nonsense, so that the country and the people can prepare for this crises in advance. Sri Lanka is an island, so it can be protected if the ports are well screened and the unauthorized boat crossings to and from India can be halted, to do that people must forget about their silly differences and unite to face this real danger.

Otherwise,  I will tell you what is going to happen, (This is not an astrological forecast but this is common sense and I do sincerely hope and pray that my prediction is to be a wrong one.)

This is a very fast mutating air borne virus which can survive out side the body for hours if not days, and it is very hard to develop a vaccine for it because, the virus changes the form very fast. Therefore, It will take at least one year to develop a some sort of vaccine or a treatment. Until such time, the country must be  protected by the will of the government and the corporation of people using what ever means such as tough quarantine measures proper education etc. 

If not, thousands upon thousands of people will die like flies, people will be dying where they have fallen in the road side, with out treatment, how ever powerful or influential a one could be, no one will come near you to help due to fear of catching illness. Badly effected will be the third world countries including India and Sri Lanka. 

Mega cities like Bombay and Madras will be full of rotting corpuses . South Africa will be the worst hit of all, as the majority of the population is already weaken by AIDS. Millions more will die of starvation and other diseases as the health system and the government services had already crumbled  apart. Thieves, looters will come and rob the people of their valuables since the law enforcement may also become affected.

Do you want this thing to happen to you ? your family ? Your relatives and friends ? This is not science fiction but the reality, if this disease can not be controlled right now. It has happened before and whole civilizations were wiped out. It can happen again if we are ignorant.

Countries in the first world together with the countries which are united without internal wars or differences will emerge from it relatively unharmed as they are more organised in the fight back and control of this epidemic.  Countries like Australia, New Zealand, England and others will utilize its unique geographic position as  island nations and will close the borders for a few months benefiting in the long run the economic benefits and export advantages resulting from the reputation as a disease free industrial and economic bases.

Lakshman 21/4/2003

 

 

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