Battleangel

ALERT! World Health Organization issues emergency travel advisory

This just arrived from the World Health Organization and concerns the recent outbreak of SARS:

During the past week, WHO has received reports of more than 150 new suspected cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), an atypical pneumonia for which cause has not yet been determined. Reports to date have been received from Canada, China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam. Early today, an ill passenger and companions who travelled from New York, United States, and who landed in Frankfurt, Germany were removed from their flight and taken to hospital isolation.

Just when you began to think that you were safe. And even though an Ebola epidemic has been raging in Congo for the last couple of months, you felt safe because it had been contained (or rather had occurred in the middle of nowhere from where it could hardly spread).
Then along comes an atypical pneumonia with no apparent cause and no cure AND on top of this already a clear worldwide decease pattern. So, is this another media hype? No. Just remember the “Spanish flu”, which killed over 20 million people. While not directly related, the spread follows pretty much the same pattern. While our modern medicine is better able to combat a pathogen such as this and the 1918 flu benefited from the conditions of WWI, there is also the parameter of mobility. Put simply, more people are able to travel today and the travel is more extensive. If an outbreak occurs in a densely populated area with good communication than the consequences can be dire. Especially in dev. countries.

WHO claims that “no link has so far been made between these outbreaks of acute respiratory illness in Hanoi and Hong Kong and the outbreak of `bird flu,` A(H5N1)”. Normally, pneumonia is a second hand infection that takes place after the initial flu. Atypical pneumonia by definition refers to pneumonia caused by certain bacteria. Still, it is very likely that this pathogen, like so many others is indeed of bird origin. Typically, the H5N1 would emerge from aquatic bird reservoirs and involve reassortment with human viruses. Additional mutations xor recombinations will permit spread and pathogenicity among humans. But as I pointed out, this is not a virus and normally we would only encounter atypical pneumonia AFTER an actual viral infection. It is therefore also likely that subjects are in fact suffering from some mild form of flu. We’ll have to wait for the analysis of this pathogen to see what we are up against and why it is able to work its magic with no “real” flu infection.

This could get really interesting …