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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.
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
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http://www.hellection.com
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.
Canadian Cynic, canadian politics is less boring than you
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.
The civet's out of the bag?
How can they say they have the disease contained if they say, in their next breath, that they expect it to come back again?
"`Ford, you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.'" -Douglas Adams, THHGTTG
Ehem, sorry, couldn't resist it... damn those Southpark kids!
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).
This cartoon nicely sums up my opinion of the whole SARS thing:
http://www.vgcats.com/vgc_comics/?strip_id=62
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.
How many people in the states died of it?
:P
Over 800 people died worldwide, and over 8000 had it. See here
SARS could have very well been the answer to China's overpopulation issues.
I'm sorry, but I can't believe this shit has been modded as "insightful". I guess it doesn't matter as long as it's Asians.
I take it you're volunteering to be a candidate for herd-thinning?
"Software is too expensive to build cheaply"
...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?
http://jesus.everdense.com/
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?
...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.
Is to remember when the WHO tried to announce that Malaria was eradicated from the earth.
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... _____________________
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
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...