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SARS Contained

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.

13 of 323 comments (clear)

  1. Re:One down... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative
    Right-clicking a dos executable in WinXP lets you set memory settings(extended/expanded)great for old games.

    gnarly, man

  2. Re:it's about time... by Arnold_Crenshaw · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

  3. Re:it's about time... by b-baggins · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    --
    You can tell a great deal about the character of a man by observing those who hate him.
  4. Re:it's about time... by JebusIsLord · · Score: 2, Informative

    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.

    --
    Jeremy
  5. Medicine = Life by heli0 · · Score: 2, Informative

    "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

    --
    Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...
  6. Re:Uh... It's Summer Folks... by don.g · · Score: 2, Informative

    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.

    --
    Pretend that something especially witty is here. Thanks.
  7. Why are you worried about West Nile? by mdielmann · · Score: 2, Informative

    Take a look. Also, keep in mind that most people that get west nile don't know they're sick, 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 in the US. It's going to be another 20 years or so before I worry about West Nile, and I'm paranoid ;)

    --
    Sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
  8. Re:it's about time... by grolschie · · Score: 5, Informative

    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?

  9. Re:it's about time... by jsse · · Score: 5, Informative

    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 of the centaury). Fortunately for us we've a lot of brave people 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.

  10. Re:it's about time... by 1u3hr · · Score: 2, Informative
    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.

  11. Re:it's about time... by 1u3hr · · Score: 4, Informative
    Even some experts in University of Hong Kong believe that there are multiple ways of spreading the disease, and that include airborne.

    Yes, airborne -- sputum, or in Amoy Gardens, from the guy who had diarrhoea and then via the criminally stupid sewage/drainage system there that allowed it to flow back through the drains.

    The Government only chose what they want you to believe.

    The WHO is subject to political pressure (as when they refused to even talk to Taiwan), but they had a pretty free hand here (as opposed to the Mainland where they tried to hush it up for months).

  12. Re:but for how long? by Abcd1234 · · Score: 2, Informative

    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?

  13. Re:it's about time... by dtake · · Score: 2, Informative

    You can get SARS by sitting next to someone with SARS on the subway in New York.

    On the other hand, unless New York becomes warm enough to attract mosquitoes, you should be relatively safe from yellow fever there.

    So a disease is only newsworthy if it potentially afflicts New Yorkers. Wow.

    Even for something like tuberculosis, which is transmitted by droplets, the infectivity is far lower than SARS. Ask any doctor who knows something about SARS.

    "Far lower" is an overstatement. The infectivity of SARS is by no means high. If it were, there would have been at least hundreds of thousands of cases once it broke out to a densely populated city with many travellers such as Hong Kong. In the case of a truly highly infectious disease such as influenza, there are tens of millions of cases every year despite the presence of an effective vaccine, global surveilliance, and partially effective treatment options.