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 .
In
Pictures: Chronology
of the SARS outbreak BBC.
Sars 'spread by cockroaches'
BBC
SARS:
Updates and Alerts -
from the Australian Department of Health and Aging
SARS: you can help by
taking sensible precautions -
press release by Singapore's Health Ministry.
SARS FAQs -
information on symptoms, treatment and quarantine. From the
Singapore Health Ministry
Sergical 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
- 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
How SARS infects body Australian Dept of Health UK Dept of Health
Malaysia Dept of Health
Center for Disease
Control Medline
Comm.
Diseases -Australia (SARS)
FAQs Health Alerts for Medical Practitioners NSW Chief Health Officer Severe Acute Resp.Syn. Australian Doctor Health Canada
Severe Ac. Res. Syndrome Disease Outbreak
News Situation Updates (sars) Influenza
It's the flu we should dread Masks fail to hide the fear Flu a 'killer virus' World alert over 'killer flu'
DFAT Travel Bulletins Int. travel and
health Travel Adv. China, SE-Asia Canadian Trav. Med. Prog.
Hong Kong Dept of
Health Singapore Dept of
Health Canada Dept of Health
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 RateThe 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
|
|
|