I was told about this by a CDC rep....

according to an article on the BBC site, scientists have discovered this virus is part of the same family as mumps and measles, and not infact a superflu as they were fearing. However we are overdue a flu pandemic as apparently they operate on a 30 year cycle and there hasn't been one for some time. This pandemics always start in the far east.

Originally posted by arc
according to an article on the BBC site, scientists have discovered this virus is part of the same family as mumps and measles, and not infact a superflu as they were fearing. However we are overdue a flu pandemic as apparently they operate on a 30 year cycle and there hasn't been one for some time. This pandemics always start in the far east.

For some reason I don't feel any better about this. Flu can easily kill you and as a 30 year old man who got mumps when he was 24 I can tell you it is NOT fun for a male after puberty, if you get my meaning.

Don't scare the kiddies

Thought you guys might want to know that two out of the three cases od SARS in the UK are false!!!

The guys in Portna Down have agreed that, over the extensive tests they have done, that the SARS cases in Glasgow where nothing more that a mutated form of the Flu which happens every year!!!

I know that SARS in the 'Killer Flu' but it must have some strange molecular make-up that makes in resistent to Antibiotics and other treatments!

Dragonrider, you said that in america your scientists were having some luck with Antivirals? If so, where they mixing a cocktail or using specific ones that destroy the virus's molecular make-up?

I also read that you said that the Russians had created a batch of diseases called Chimera's!

I got notice from my seniors in the AMDCC, saying that the Russians have maybe...i say maybe...fused two diffrent virus', MRSA and a mutated flu strain and created something that could kill people within days and have almost no way of treating it apart from trying all the diffrent antiviral and IV therapy!!

Lets just hope that the CDC and USAMRIDD have a little more experience with the strain and can come up with a solution to the problem??

Get back in contact if anything else flares up??

Oh, BTW..arc, you mentioned that the virus has been catorgorised in Mumps and Measles?

I agree with you there!!

But, wouldn't your MMR help the fight of infection?

Originally posted by arc
according to an article on the BBC site, scientists have discovered this virus is part of the same family as mumps and measles, and not infact a superflu as they were fearing. However we are overdue a flu pandemic as apparently they operate on a 30 year cycle and there hasn't been one for some time. This pandemics always start in the far east.

How long do they usually last for?

Catalyst I don't know off hand how long they last - will need to go find that one out.

Raven I doubt MMR would help as it's aimed at an exact strain of a virus and not one which is related. It's a bit like the flu vacinations they give out - will only work on a handful of strains but is useless once the flu virus mutates.

Just something to consider if you are worrying about this being a biological attack. Would it possibly make more sense to release a virus in several major cities simultaneously causing maximum disruption and panic, than to chance it being detected and halted quickly by just having one source?

It would make sense and i agree with you there, but for example..this is how they'd probably wipe out britain!!

As you know, alot of the water in britain comes from scotlands dams. All they's have to do is go to the nearesy and largest open resovoir and dump in whatever they had..ie..anthrax, VX or whatever!!

Withing about two months the hospitals would be crowded..the country would be on high alert and we'd all be screwed!!!!!!!!

Thats my theory on the water contamination!!

When i get some more info on the test results from the facilities i will post them, minus the official things!!

Lets all pray that the scientists are right about the Mumps and Measles thing?

There's a flu all 5 or 6 years and if the WHO issues no serious warning, its nothing really dangerous.

Scientists find cause for mystery virus...


www.washingtonpost.com.../registration/incremental&destination=incremental&nextstep=gather&applicat ion=3-Point-world&applicationURL=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10357-2003Mar22.html

Yet i dont think it's a grave threat since 250 cases in one week isnt that much, moreose because airports are places where you have many people on the same spot. Posted by Rascar Capac

Actually , 250 cases reported in one week would be classified as an emerging epidemic, and as it turns out, the cases seem to only be increasing, almost at a geometric rate... but then, that would be considered an epidemic.

Yes, people are packed into close spaces at an airport... and on airplanes they have to breath the same recycled air for hours on end... and since everyone is traveling long distance, and likely will be catching connecting flights all over the world, that would be a PERFECT place to drop a biological agent to maximize global dispersion.

The only bright side I see to this is that a relatively small number have actually died from this (although people dont seem to be in a great hurry to recover from it) about a 5% death rate as I calculate it. Imagine what it could be, given the same factors, if it were a chimera designed with a 90%+ fatality rate...

Raven: as far as the success in treatment, I have no clue what they are doing for the victims in terms of actual anti-viral agents, but have heard that they are essentially injecting entire pharmacies into patients, and something in the mixture seems to be working, slightly... at least it is keeping the worst cases alive....

US not prepared for a Botulin Attack


ap.tbo.com...

i'm just glad they got this bad boy figured out. if they didn't and it was deadliey, we would be screwd royally anally and whatever else. sucks. but we're better than that! i think biological weapons and diseases is the scariest terror attack method. i don't like bumps!

This is getting scarier by the day....


www.news.com.au...

I also read, cant find the story, that Singapore closed all schools indeffinitely to attempt to contain this disease....

3 dozen dead, 800 infected in China....


www.foxnews.com...

World Health Organization urges airport screening...


If you have symptoms, you will be refused to fly....


news.bbc.co.uk...

Thousands of Ontario residents face SARS quarantine
Last Updated Wed, 26 Mar 2003 19:39:35
TORONTO - Thousands of Ontario residents are facing quarantine at home to block the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), says Dr. Sheela Basrur, Toronto's medical officer of health.

The Ontario goverrnment declared a health emergency Wednesday to try to stop the spread of the virus, and quarantining people who have been exposed is key.

CANADIAN CASES
Ontario
27 probable and five suspect cases. To date, all cases have occurred in close family contacts of travellers returning from Hong Kong or in health care workers who have cared for these cases.

British Columbia:
One person has been hospitalized with SARS after returning from travel in southeast Asia.
Source: Health Canada

INDEPTH: SARS: the mystery illness

That means the medical force fighting the disease is trying to reach everyone � patients, staff and visitors � who have been at the Scarborough Grace Hospital in the past 10 days.

The hospital is the centre of the disease in Toronto, because one of the first patients to contract SARS in Canada was admitted to Scarborough Grace.

The medical group has contacted all the staff and patients at the Grace, the group facing the greatest risk, but does not know who every visitor was.

Even those people need to be quarantined for 10 days from the date they were at the hospital, Basrur said.

Those people have "a very low risk of exposure," she said.

Dr. Colin D'Cunha, the province's commissioner of public health, emphasized that "the risk of contracting SARS is still very low."

There are 27 probable cases � including three deaths � and five suspected cases in the province, Basrur told a media conference.

Fourteen of the cases are in Toronto, and 10 in the rest of the province.


RELATED: Chinese pneumonia toll climbs





Two residents of Peel, just west of Toronto, are being monitored after showing SARS symptoms. They are health care workers who attended to SARS patients.

The Ontario government has set up an around-the-clock command centre to co-ordinate information on the spread of the virus.

Women's College Hospital in downtown Toronto will open a clinic Thursday where people with symptoms can go to be assessed.

Scarborough Grace Hospital was closed to new patients and visitors on Tuesday, and the nearby David Lewis Public School sent its students home after three of them came down with high fevers, an early symptom of the illness.

But there was no medical reason for the school to close, said Basrur.


Dr. Sheela Basrur


"We recommended the school remain open and the daycare remain open because there was no reason from a public health standpoint to close those facilities," she said.

As well as Toronto residents who may have come into contact with the virus, travellers who went recently to China's Guandong province, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Singapore are at risk, the province said.

Health officials in Ottawa are investigating a possible case in a man who travelled to one of the source countries. They've recommended voluntary quarantine for his family and medical workers who treated him.

SARS first arrived in Toronto a month ago, when a woman died after returning from a trip to Hong Kong.

"None of the people who are ill at this point were taking precautions when they were taking care of patients, simply because we didn't know what we were dealing with," said Dr. Mary Verncombe, an infection prevention specialist.

Chinese Admit Mystery Disease is Out of Control
28-Mar-2003



For the first time, the Chinese government has admitted that almost about 3 dozen people have died and almost 800 are ill in an outbreak of the new mystery disease known as severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. Until now, they insisted that only five people had died from it. With all the war news on TV, our media is ignoring the increasing spread of SARS here in the U.S.�but not so in Canada, where they've declared a health emergency and may soon force people into quarantine.
Dr. Meirion Evans, of the World Health Organization (WHO) says, "We're getting a more complete picture. It's certainly been one of the objectives of the mission to clarify whether the outbreak in China was the same disease as what's been seen outside of China."

While SARS is spreading rapidly and schools are being closed in Asian countries, at least 80% of the people who catch it seem to recover. 20% become critically ill and 10% eventually die from it. Victims who are older than 40 and have other health problems, such as heart or liver disease, are most likely to move to the life-threatening phase of the lung infection.

80 doctors treating SARS patients in 13 countries participated in an electronic meeting organized by WHO, which enabled doctors trying to save patients worldwide to exchange information over the telephone and internet about how best to diagnose and treat them. "For the first time, we brought all the clinicians together," says WHO's Mark Salter.

As a result of this conference, a distinctive pattern of symptoms has become clear. Two to seven days after being exposed, patients suddenly develop a high fever of 104 degrees Fahrenheit or higher and start shaking and experiencing chills, shortness of breath and a dry cough. Some people also experience headaches, muscular stiffness, loss of appetite, tiredness, confusion, rashes and diarrhea. Chest X-rays show a distinctive pattern in which a cloudy area appears in one part of a lung and then spreads to both lungs.

After about six or seven days, about 80 to 90% of patients begin to improve, while the remaining 10 to 20% percent deteriorate and require intensive care. Some even need a mechanical ventilator to help them breathe.

Meanwhile in Canada, health authorities in Ontario have advised hundreds of people to quarantine themselves. A Canadian hospital that treated two SARS patients who died has been closed, along with a nearby school where some children came down with flu-like symptoms.

Health officer Dr. Sheela Basrur says said the number of people who will eventually be quarantined could be "in the thousands�This is an incident of unprecedented scope and magnitude." The Ontario government has designated the illness a reportable, communicable and virulent disease under the Health Protection and Promotion Act, which means people can be quarantined against their will.

The overall mortality rate for SARS is about 4%, which is similar to that of West Nile virus. No antibiotics work against SARS. The antiviral drug ribavirin has been used by a number of doctors, but its effectiveness isn't clear. During the electronic meeting, doctors agreed to organize a study to test ribavirin's usefulness. "Clinicians around the globe are stretched to the limit," Mark Salter of WHO says. "Everybody is working very hard to try to not only identify the agent that's causing this, but to find methods that might be effective in treating it."

www.unknowncountry.com...

1485 probable cases 53 deaths

and some countries yet to disclose all info.
No cause yet and no cure,seems to be getting worse.

I still have a very bad feeling that this is the opening shot of a bioterror attack.... It is going to get worse before it gets better...

I've read that the orginal virus which may have started in nov last year could now have mutated that's why they havn't found a cure.With a few counties not disclosing all info on affected people the figures may be much higher.