You are hereSARS...
SARS...
Okay, so I'm a pretty calm and collected guy for the most part. Not much gets me concerned in a reactionary manner. Anyway, I'm trying to maintain that outlook when it comes to SARS. I mean, it's relatively scary to think that it's being passed around so easily, but as a coworker mentioned to me today, West Nile is just as lethal to this point.... and it's transported by mosquitoes! What are people going to do this summer... this isn't something you can avoid unless you shun the outdoors (which would be nice for me as I think that the outdoors is just too trendy and overcrowded these days... ;)
Anyway, I am a little concerned, but not because I'm going to acquire SARS - apparently I already passed through the eye of the storm unscathed - but rather because my sister is still in the apparent birthplace of it.
As I said before in a previous posting, my sister is teaching in China... Guangdong province actually... in a the city of Jiangmen (pop. 650,000) about 2-2.5 hours outside of Hong Kong. Anyway... that concerns me a bit... but I 'm pretty convinced that she'll be fine and that she'll get home alright. She told me today that apparently SARS has been a problem of sorts (i'm guessing she got this from the chinese news...) since November. Crazy.
I heard something interesting the other day. Apparently, SARS has a fatality rate of approximately 5%, whereas the flu has a fatality rate of 10%.
Of course, the main difference is that SARS seems to be spreading/infecting much more rapidly than any flu, so 5% of a bigger number is more people potentially dieing, but it does put it somewhat into perspective.
I immediately thought of you and your travels to China when I started hearing about this. I considered quarantining you :P
Seriously, I hope that things go well with your sister. Masks DO NOT help -- the transmission pattern is from droplets, so wash your hands and face frequently as the best defense. The quarantine officers scanning passengers from Asia are not wearing masks.
Anyway, all the best to your sister. I hear drinking lots of Tsing Tao helps, too.
I saw an article that basically said what I figured - virii grow rapidly, therefore evolve rapidly. We aren't going to see an end to these serious virus plagues that continue to defeat anti-biotics. We may already be doing ourselves in, with this overdose of anti-biotic soaps, helping expose millions of virii to anti-biotics, helping them adapt and survive and being a catalyst for Darwinian evolution, if that is indeed the explanation, and not an alternate theory of adaptation.
And that's just one problem - chronic over-subscription of anti-biotics in medicine as expensive placebos is also rampant in North America.
But what do we do? Live in fear? Become Kleptomaniacs? Sit and do nothing? Start passive resistance campaigns for positive change in the use of anti-biotics? Become biologists and try to cure all these things?
Shoot bruddah, I don't know. This guy has it right:
http://www.boomshaka.com/toshx/herb.html
Umm... Hexachloratine-bizincophanate, Just so you know... Anti-biotics are used to treat bacteria, and not virii... at least as far as I remember, I may have to get my microbiologist friend to comment on this. While without a doubt, chronic over-prescription of anti-biotics is hindering our ability to treat bacteria, I highly doubt it's affecting the fight against virii.
Yeah, you're right, but I'd hoped people would read through that to see the message, rather than get caught up in the imperfect use of language.
Pobody's nerfect.
I am away, so haven't had a chance to update the Blacklist that I use... so things have gotten in. Spammers are too damn industrious.
What's with the bot-spam in your blog?
more Bot-Spam guy!
Post new comment