Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : SARS - what next? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (764)	9/27/2003 9:56:57 AM
From: Henry Niman	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1070

The Toronto Star is running a story on the SARS investigation. They have a page with links to story of quite a few victims. Toronto's victims were much more heterogeneous because most of them were infected in hospitals. A quick look at the names, pictures, or stories quickly shows that SARS CoV is quite democratic and homo sapiens in a wide range of occupations are the target of choice (I didn't see any that were infected because they ate in a Chinese restaurant) thestar.com

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (764)	9/27/2003 10:47:02 AM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 1070

Avoiding SARS like the plague is not a bad idea. Although genetics can make a difference in some diseases, a quick look at those who died in Toronto shows that the SARS CoV is quite democratic. Proximity is the highest risk factor for being infected and age is one of the strongest predictors for fatal SARS. Of course none are absolute (although being in the hospital room of the Prince of Wales index patient may have generated an attack rate of 100% in that instance). Most who died of SARS were Chinese because most of those exposed in Guangdong Province were Chinese. Genetics was pretty much trumped by the titer and genetics of the virus. The virus had fewer mutations in 2002 and early 2003, so there may have been a somewhat lower mortality rate initially (and there is evidence for the disease jumping to humans in the fall of 2001 and then the mortality rate was probably considerably lower). The key genetic factor at this time lies primarily in the just under 30,000 nucleotides that make up the SARS CoV genome.