Dear All,
As Feierjanes has recently posted a root article about the dead disease outbreak in Guangdong area. Now it becomes more clearly that the disease has broader threaten globally.
HISTORY OF GUANGDONG OUTBREAKSeveral weeks ago, an outbreak of an illness had killed five and sickened more than 300 with pneumonia in Guangdong of south China; most of them were hospital doctors and staffs. At the time, the outbreak of Guangdong disease was linked to the Hongkong Chicken Flu that killed a nine year old boy and later his father after they traveled to an island nearby Fujian, southeast of China. But the official in Guangdong stated that the outbreak is due to a strain of unknown bacteria infection, which is different from the flu virus. However, doctors close to the case were suspicious about the conclusion.
Now it emerges as a globe outbreak of an infectious disease. The World Health Organization warned Saturday that this contagious and deadly pneumonia-like illness of unknown cause is fast becoming a worldwide health threat. In a rare “emergency travel advisory,” the health agency has received more than 150 reports of what it called “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome” in the past week alone, mostly in Southeast Asia.
SPREAD OUT LIKE A JET At least three more people have died globe wise — an American businessman and two people who arrived in Canada recently from Hong Kong. The growing list of countries reporting cases of the illness include China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Most cases involve medical workers.
The Hanoi outbreak in Vietnam started after an American businessman traveling from Shanghai via Hong Kong apparently infected up to 30 hospital workers, five of whom now are in critical condition. The unidentified U.S. citizen was evacuated and died in Hong Kong. In Canada, Toronto Public Health officials said a woman died March 5 and her adult son died March 13 after arriving recently from Hong Kong. Four of their relatives were hospitalized. The illness also might have emerged in British Columbia, Canada, where one person was in intensive care at a Vancouver hospital and another person has recovered, Toronto health officials said. Toronto has established a hot line for people who fear they have the illness.
Health officials around the world are taking this situation very seriously. In Germany, a Singapore doctor believed to be infected was taken off a New York-to-Singapore flight in Germany on Saturday and quarantined. Two people traveling with him — his wife and another doctor — also were being held for observation at the Wolfgang Goethe University Clinic in Frankfurt, Germany. The doctor began suffering symptoms while in New York. The man recently attended a New York conference, but it was not immediately known exactly when he was in the city, the nature of the meeting or which airline he used. There was concern the doctor may have infected other 155 passengers on board.
CAUSE IS UNKNOWN Doctors do not know what causes the illness — even whether it is a bacteria or virus. WHO official said doctors are unsure whether antibiotics or antiviral drugs have an effect on the disease since they have not been consistently used in the areas with the most cases.
The potentially fatal illness is believed to spread “person to person” and have an incubation period of two to seven days, but there is no evidence to suggest that this can be spread through brief contact or assemblages of large people.
Until the doctors can get a grip on it, the diseases will slow down. People are not responding to antibiotics or antivirals. It’s a highly contagious disease and it’s moving around by jet. It’s bad!
SYMPTOMSThe WHO advisory urged travelers who may have come in contact with someone infected to watch for symptoms such as high fever, coughing and shortness of breath. SARS also may be associated with headache, muscular stiffness, loss of appetite, confusion, rash and diarrhea. The advisory did not call for restrictions on travel to any destination but said people who suspect they may have the illness should seek medical attention and not travel until they recover.
BIOTERRORISM? When asked whether the illness could be caused by bioterrorism, the WHO offical said, “We have an open mind and will be keeping an open mind as we go forward.”
Take care!
Mia
