(George Merck of Merck developed bioterror weapons for the DOD
for many years, as have Glaxo Smith Kline, Bioport, Battelle
and others. http://www.all-natural.com/riley.html
and the 9 books of Leonard Horowitz such as Death In The Air
and Emerging Viruses)
.........
Posted on Mon, Apr. 14, 2003
Area doctors examine SARS
Experts try to unravel mystery behind disease and contain its spread
By Tracy Wheeler
Beacon Journal medical writer
Health System has earned a or SARS.
be.
world are being so vigilant in tracking a disease that carries a
lower death rate than global influenza outbreaks.
SARS patients exhibit common respiratory symptoms, such as coughing
and fever. Recent travel history is almost as important as those
symptoms in diagnosing the disease. An Ohio brother and sister, for
example, are considered suspected SARS cases not so much because of a
bout with chickenpox and a cough, but because one of them had been to
China.
Certainly, other infectious diseases sicken and kill far more people
than SARS, which ends in death 3 percent to 4 percent of the time.
Influenza, for example, kills 30,000 people each year in the United
States, and as many as a half-million more -- with a death rate
between 5 percent and 10 percent -- around the world. U.S. hospital-
acquired infections take 90,000 lives each year. And HIV/AIDS killed
3.1 million people worldwide in 2002.
So why is so much attention being paid to a disease that has stricken
fewer than 3,000 people and killed about 100? Why is the public
flooding the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with a
record number of phone calls -- greater even than the number received
during the 2001 anthrax attacks?
The answer lies in SARS' newness and mysterious origins, along with
the fact that it attacks indiscriminately, affecting not just the
very young, the old and the weak, but those in their 30s and 40s who
seemed otherwise healthy.
``It's one of those circumstances in history when we're observing the
emergence of something humans appear not to have been exposed to
before,'' said Dr. Susan Rehm, an infectious disease specialist at
the Cleveland Clinic. ``The antennae have been raised in the medical
community and the community at large. In a situation where there are
so many unknowns, there's certainly a tendency to err on the side of
caution.''
Hunting for clues
In mid-March, after the CDC and the World Health Organization brought
SARS to the world's attention, scientists initially theorized that
SARS was caused by a paramyxovirus, a member of the family of
microbes responsible for measles, mumps and canine distemper.
Then, scientists at the University of Hong Kong said they had
isolated the SARS virus, but they couldn't determine which viral
group it fell into.
The theory switched to coronavirus, which is usually related to the
common cold.
But SARS isn't thought to be just any coronavirus. This one, Canadian
scientists believe, is a mutated mixture of coronaviruses from
humans, cows and pigs, with each species contributing bits of its
genetic code.
Cow and pig viruses that never before would have had any effect on
people were able to jump species, thanks to a change in genetic
makeup.
``There are so many viruses, and very few can cause human
infection,'' File said. ``Even fewer cause human disease.
``We've known this for centuries, actually, that a virus can acquire
new genetic information in a variety of ways, usually through random
events that have occurred. If it just happens to occur in the right
sequences, it can have the ability to infect humans.''
Changing virus
Some viruses, such as smallpox and polio, rarely mutate, which is why
vaccinations have been successful in eradicating them.
But other viruses, such as those causing influenza and HIV,
constantly mutate, changing just enough to maneuver around vaccines.
Mutating viruses are a scary proposition. The human immune system
hasn't created antibodies to fight off these unrecognized attackers,
giving the virus an open highway to infect vast populations.
That's how killer pandemics begin. (An epidemic is a sudden severe
outbreak within a region or a group. A pandemic occurs when an
epidemic becomes very widespread and affects a whole region, a
continent, or the entire world.)
The largest pandemic of the last century -- Spanish influenza in 1918-
19 -- was caused by an influenza strain that joined the genetic
components of pig and human influenza viruses. Twenty million people
died worldwide, including 500,000 Americans.
In 1997, health officials stopped a ``near miss'' of another
pandemic, when a chicken influenza virus began killing people in Hong
Kong. The disease was stopped by the slaughter of more than a million
of the country's chickens.
While national and international health officials are concerned about
the spread of SARS, apandemic is considered unlikely, though an
ongoing epidemic is still possible.
CDC Director Julie L. Gerberding told a Senate health committee last
week that the U.S. health system ``has risen to the occasion'' of
dealing with SARS, but other nations may not be responding as well.
``It's going to be very difficult to contain it'' as it spreads
across the globe, she said.
Most cases overseas
China and Hong Kong have been ground zero for SARS, accounting for
more than 2,390 cases (out of almost 3,000 worldwide) and more than
90 deaths (out of at least 133 worldwide). Singapore, Vietnam and
Canada also have been hit hard.
In the United States, there appears to be very little spread of the
disease once it enters the country.
Though the number of suspected U.S. cases has slowly grown to 166 --
six in Ohio -- most cases (154) are being attributed to travelers
coming into the country from China, Hong Kong or Vietnam. Just nine
of the U.S. cases have been caused by household contact with the
infected person, while three other cases were health-care workers who
treated infected patients.
However, late last week, the United States saw the first case -- in
Florida -- of a SARS patient infecting a co-worker, a development
that Gerberding said makes her ``very concerned.''
``When we see an unexplained case pop up in a school or workplace,''
she said, ``that's when we are concerned the public health
containment efforts have failed. But we're not seeing that at this
time.''
The CDC has been handing out 15,000 health-alert notices each day to
air travelers returning from affected regions at 23 ports of entry.
Federal officials even briefly detained a jet from Tokyo on a San
Jose, Calif., runway when the captain reported that five crew members
had SARS-like symptoms. As it turned out, none of them had SARS.
The CDC has advised against travel to Hong Kong, China, Vietnam and
Singapore. On Thursday, the U.S. State Department strengthened the
warning for China, alerting travelers to a new Chinese government
policy requiring hospitalization of anyone -- including foreigners --
who shows SARS symptoms until the contagious phase passes. Under the
new Chinese policy, patients will not be allowed to see family
members, personal physicians or U.S. consular officials.
And earlier this month, President George W. Bush signed an executive
order giving federal health officials the power to quarantine people
who may be sick with SARS, though there are no plans to use those new
powers.
``If we see evidence that our infection-control measures are not
containing spread within communities, then we will have to reconsider
whether additional steps are necessary,'' Gerberding said.
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Tracy Wheeler can be reached at 330-996-3721 or
tawheeler@t...
****************************
Yahoo has been placing lobster boiling graphics
on animal rights sites.. with a game in which
those who can put the lobster in the boiling water
win..
Terry Semel of Yahoo.. is a contributor to the political
agenda of Sharon-Bush. Since Yahoo bought egroups it has
eliminated some crossposting, added unwanted commercials in
between post and message, reduced calendar functions.
---
***
http://www.thebermudaproject.com has a list of offshore
corporations such as Pfizer, Halliburton and others which
pay no taxes in the US
*****
Bubonic Plague research at Texas Tech
Weaponized anthrax research at Battelle, given 1 billion by CIA
says author of 9 books Leonard Horowitz
