Beginning of a pandemic?

[Gonz]

This is getting worse

Reuters Wednesday, March 26, 2003; 9:59 AM
By Tan Ee Lyn

HONG KONG (Reuters) - China dramatically raised the death toll from a mystery virus on Wednesday and reported its first deaths in the capital, as Singapore closed schools to fight a pneumonia outbreak that has killed more than 50 people worldwide.

Singapore, which has quarantined 861 people with flu-like symptoms and reported on Wednesday its first two deaths from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), said all schools would be closed until April 6.

A top Hong Kong official issued a chilling warning to the city's seven million people, saying the killer disease was spreading among the public.

Post

 

[Shadowfax]

jesus christ...i'm flying to singapore end of June...hope things are solved then...

 

[Gonz]

When was the last pandemic? 1917 or so?

 

[Shadowfax]

i have no idea...but it kinda sucks that it might be happening just as i'm flying to singapore...

talk about bad timing...hope they solve the mystery soon and find a cure.

 

[chcr]

When was the last pandemic? 1917 or so?

It was something like that. Didn't that one start in S.E. Asia as well?

 

[Gonz]

The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than the Great War, known today as World War I (WWI), at somewhere between 20 and 40 million people. It has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history. More people died of influenza in a single year than in four-years of the Black Death Bubonic Plague from 1347 to 1351. Known as "Spanish Flu" or "La Grippe" the influenza of 1918-1919 was a global disaster.

:shudders:

Source

 

[Shadowfax]

i seriously doubt it will get as far as that....fortunately our scientists know a lot more than the ones back then

 

[Gonz]

without a cure or an innoculation, it doesn't matter. Probably not as many, but a whole bunch nonteheless

 

[Shadowfax]

true...but they found out pretty fast that it was a virus, even what kind of virus..
let's hope they find the cure as well soon...it's really freaking me out, looking at how fast it is spreading

 

[Jeslek]

Time to boost those immune systems...

 

[chcr]

Here's hoping someone givew it to Saddam.

 

[MrBishop]

SARS in North America now

SARS is not just in the Far East...it's in Canada now.

So far...they don't know what causes it
they don't know how it's transmitted
they don't know how to cure it

They're closing schools here in Canada and in the Far East.

Thousands asked to wear masks.

Source

 

[Gonz]

At least 80 percent of people stricken by a mysterious new lung infection spreading around the globe appear to recover, but the rest become critically ill and about half of them die, health officials said yesterday.

Post

 

[Gonz]

Top officials in Toronto's medical staff believe up to 3,000 people may have been exposed -- directly or indirectly -- to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, according to Toronto Sun sources.

"It's out of control," the source said.

An "unprecedented" quarantine of thousands of Torontonians has been ordered to stop the deadly spread of SARS, which has also been declared a provincial emergency.

10-DAY ISOLATION

TorontoSun

 

[unclehobart]

Anyone remember that killer flu that got around in like 75? That caused a fair panic and killed quite a few.

 

[Gonz]

it keeps getting better & better...

The mystery illness that has sickened 1,550 people worldwide appears to spread more easily than was first thought, said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Earlier this month, when cases of the mystery illness started appearing in North America, health officials thought it could be spread only by close, face-to-face contact, such as that which occurs between a doctor and a patient or among family members.

The disease, which has killed 54 people in 13 countries, most of them in mainland China and Hong Kong, is called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS.

CNN

 

[unclehobart]

The Hong Kong doctor who identified the strain just died from it.

(heard it on a BBC radio broadcast)

 

[Gonz]

Will they change the name now, in honor of his sacrifice?

 

[unclehobart]

Don't ask me, man. I wouldn't want it named after me. I could just see myself isolating a strain of herpes and them naming it after me. Then everyone would go round quietly whispering... 'yo, man.. I got a bad case of the hobarts'

Yuck.. what a curse. No thanks.

 

[Gonz]

I bet Mr Planter wishes he never had warts