Whatever Happened to SARS????

tmiller027 · Dec 11, 2003

Last I heard, it had pretty much been contained. I havent' read of any new outbreaks since the Canada deal.

tgibson3770 · Dec 13, 2003

It's around, lurking under a rock waiting for discovery again. No really, SARS is still active in certain parts. Just don't hear about it too much. Influenza, AKA. Flu is the news of the hour.

gwenith, BSN, RN · Dec 13, 2003

New Scientist.com has a link for sars - I posted it in the Current Events forum a while back. One of the latest issues of NS has the Chinese goverment set to do a mass immunisation.

VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN · Dec 13, 2003

Thanks for the link!

KaroSnowQueen, RN · Dec 13, 2003

There's not much news about it now. My son in law had SARS last year, and his doctor is very nervous about his health this flu season, had him get a flu shot and pneumonia shot and cautions him about being in crowds, etc. this winter.

passing thru · Dec 13, 2003

I was thinking about it too. I think if it reappears, it will be in Jan and Feb.

The media is over hyping this flu bug.....

Tom Brokaw & NBC should be ashamed for the way they are

exploiting the flu for ratings.....

It's gonna get worse....the media manipulation....

It is easy to get caught up in the fear and angst...

As nurses, we need to de-panic the public.

road runner1 · Dec 16, 2003

I came across this while browsing the ABC web site - - -

China confident if SARS returns

China is confident it will be able to control Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) if it returns, despite admitting that the virus remains a mystery, state media said on Tuesday.

Vice Minister of Health Huang Jiefu told a conference in Beijing that China had made great progress since early this year, the Xinhua news agency reported.

"We have greatly improved and strengthened our reaction system to public health emergencies," Huang said.

Despite this show of confidence, Mr Huang acknowledged that SARS remained a mystery virus in many ways.

"We still don't know where the virus comes from, neither do we have a SARS vaccine or effective medicine to cure the disease," he said, according to Xinhua.

Henk Bekedam, the World Health Organisation's China representative, also said finding a SARS vaccine was essential.

"We can't solely rely on health workers' diligence and sacrifice in defeating SARS if it broke out again," he said.

A recurrent theme at the forum was the need for increased international cooperation in the field, the agency said.

--AFP

Last Update: Tuesday, December 16, 2003. 5:53pm (AEDT)

suzanne4, RN · Dec 30, 2003

Yes, there is a patient in China with SARS. He works as an independent cameraman in the same province where it all started. He is in quarantine, and is stable according to the Chinese news. There have been two other cases over in SE Asia recently but they have been caused by lab accidents. They were researchers that got the disease but are both out of the hospital.

I live in BKK and watch the Chinese news daily in addition to wathing the international stations, including CNN and BBC. This is the absolute latest.

Plus, CNN recently did a documentary about the province in China where this originated. Source is thought to be the civet cat. The market there has been allowed since August to sell the animal again, but supposedly is restricted to farm-raised. CNN actually saw wild cats in cages there (missing paws from traps), etc.

They were pushed out by the selles, so I would be surprised if there isn't an epidemic there again this winter. Just hope that we can continue to keep it out of here.

jnette, ASN, EMT-I · Dec 30, 2003

Ineresting that this thread just appeared......... Just heard on the news last night that SARS has reappeared in Asia.

oramar · Dec 30, 2003

Some stories have said the disease was "contained". Others warned it had just gone underground as these illnesses tend to do in warm weather. Makes you wonder which it is.