2008 Woodie Awards
SARS still a threat
Louie Araujo
Issue date: 5/23/03 Section: News
The World Health Organization declared that the global death toll from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome climbed to 573, and 7,548 were infected as of May 14. The W.H.O. admitted that the disease is far more deadly than previously thought.
While the nefarious disease is debated and studied by medical network institutions throughout the world, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a new, unidentified pneumonia, indicating the SARS virus has mutated.
According the an article in The New York Times, a Santa Clara, California, man, who stayed in the Metropole Hotel in Hong Kong, was hospitalized on March 17 shortly after his return to the United States with symptoms of pneumonia. Later tests showed he had developed antibodies against a strain of coronavirus, thought to be the family of diseases at the root of SARS. His case, according to The New York Times, was one of the most serious of the 58 known suspected cases in California.
California, which has more travelers from Asia than any other state, has more reported SARS cases than any other state.
W.H.O. officials revised the death rate of those infected with the disease from 6 percent to 10 percent after studying data from Canada, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam.
SARS first surfaced as a mysterious disease in Southern China last November. The illness includes symptoms such as fever, coughing and breathing problems. But a new illness with SARS-like symptoms has emerged since that time, its symptoms including diarrhea. The outbreak of the mutated version of the disease has doctors baffled.
In Malaysia, Prime Minister Mahatir Mohamed, a medical doctor, predicted more outbreaks of potentially new viruses.
According to Mohamed, "In the future there will be more SARS-like diseases due to mutation of bacteria and viruses."
Presently China is the staging area of the SARS virus and its mutations. However, in the United States thousands of customs inspectors have been trained to spot SARS symptoms and are ordered to detain those who exhibit symptoms as part of an attempt to prevent a U.S. outbreak.
While the nefarious disease is debated and studied by medical network institutions throughout the world, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a new, unidentified pneumonia, indicating the SARS virus has mutated.
According the an article in The New York Times, a Santa Clara, California, man, who stayed in the Metropole Hotel in Hong Kong, was hospitalized on March 17 shortly after his return to the United States with symptoms of pneumonia. Later tests showed he had developed antibodies against a strain of coronavirus, thought to be the family of diseases at the root of SARS. His case, according to The New York Times, was one of the most serious of the 58 known suspected cases in California.
California, which has more travelers from Asia than any other state, has more reported SARS cases than any other state.
W.H.O. officials revised the death rate of those infected with the disease from 6 percent to 10 percent after studying data from Canada, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam.
SARS first surfaced as a mysterious disease in Southern China last November. The illness includes symptoms such as fever, coughing and breathing problems. But a new illness with SARS-like symptoms has emerged since that time, its symptoms including diarrhea. The outbreak of the mutated version of the disease has doctors baffled.
In Malaysia, Prime Minister Mahatir Mohamed, a medical doctor, predicted more outbreaks of potentially new viruses.
According to Mohamed, "In the future there will be more SARS-like diseases due to mutation of bacteria and viruses."
Presently China is the staging area of the SARS virus and its mutations. However, in the United States thousands of customs inspectors have been trained to spot SARS symptoms and are ordered to detain those who exhibit symptoms as part of an attempt to prevent a U.S. outbreak.