Friday, May 02, 2003
CDC OFFICIAL: CHICKEN AND PIGS
ARE STILL A GOOD PLACE TO LOOK
FOR SARS-LIKE CORONAVIRUSES
On the heels of the publication of the genome sequences of the SARS-associated coronavirus, a CDC official has suggested a closer look be given at farm animals in China. In Genome News Network, Kate Dalke reports that "scientists have now published the genomes of two strains of the virus. The genome sequences confirm that the virus is a novel variety of coronavirus--a family of viruses that causes respiratory illness in humans and other animals."
According to Dalke, "SARS does not resemble known coronaviruses in chickens or pigs, but these domesticated animals are still 'a good place to look' for similar viruses, said Steven Oberste of the US Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta during a recent news conference."
ARE STILL A GOOD PLACE TO LOOK
FOR SARS-LIKE CORONAVIRUSES
On the heels of the publication of the genome sequences of the SARS-associated coronavirus, a CDC official has suggested a closer look be given at farm animals in China. In Genome News Network, Kate Dalke reports that "scientists have now published the genomes of two strains of the virus. The genome sequences confirm that the virus is a novel variety of coronavirus--a family of viruses that causes respiratory illness in humans and other animals."
According to Dalke, "SARS does not resemble known coronaviruses in chickens or pigs, but these domesticated animals are still 'a good place to look' for similar viruses, said Steven Oberste of the US Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta during a recent news conference."
Wednesday, April 30, 2003
WHAT VIRUSES HAVE SARS PATIENTS
BEEN TESTED FOR?
By Charles Ortleb
As scientists struggle today with the problem of not finding the SARS-associated coronavirus in most of the patients with the syndrome, wouldn't it be nice if someone would publish a complete list of all the viruses (animal and human) that the patients have been tested for?
Actually, what might be the most helpful, and the most revealing, is the list of viruses the patients have not been tested for.
Is there any other part of the SARS story that's more important now than the fact that the coronavirus may only be part of the puzzle or that it's a huge mistake? Journalists should keep the heat on the CDC on this one. Don't hold your breath.
Meanwhile, dogs and cats are now suspected carriers of SARS in Beijing. They're being taken from the homes of SARS patients and killed. That should raise this crisis to a new prominence in the media.
In the Philippines, some leaders in the livestock industry fear that meat might transmit SARS, and legislators are calling for a boycott of all meat from China. There is still no indication that pigs or other barnyard edibles in China have even been tested yet for the SARS coronavirus. All the quarantines in the world may do nothing to wipe this illness out if animals are a growing unrecognized reservoir of the SARS virus(es).
Click here for a database on SARS and pigs.
Charles Ortleb is the author of The Closing Argument and the co-author of The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Follies.
BEEN TESTED FOR?
By Charles Ortleb
As scientists struggle today with the problem of not finding the SARS-associated coronavirus in most of the patients with the syndrome, wouldn't it be nice if someone would publish a complete list of all the viruses (animal and human) that the patients have been tested for?
Actually, what might be the most helpful, and the most revealing, is the list of viruses the patients have not been tested for.
Is there any other part of the SARS story that's more important now than the fact that the coronavirus may only be part of the puzzle or that it's a huge mistake? Journalists should keep the heat on the CDC on this one. Don't hold your breath.
Meanwhile, dogs and cats are now suspected carriers of SARS in Beijing. They're being taken from the homes of SARS patients and killed. That should raise this crisis to a new prominence in the media.
In the Philippines, some leaders in the livestock industry fear that meat might transmit SARS, and legislators are calling for a boycott of all meat from China. There is still no indication that pigs or other barnyard edibles in China have even been tested yet for the SARS coronavirus. All the quarantines in the world may do nothing to wipe this illness out if animals are a growing unrecognized reservoir of the SARS virus(es).
Click here for a database on SARS and pigs.
Charles Ortleb is the author of The Closing Argument and the co-author of The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Follies.
Sunday, April 27, 2003
THE TIMES REPORTS THAT 5% OF FIRST
SARS CASES WERE CHEFS AND
FOOD HANDLERS
By Charles Ortleb
According to a report in today's New York Times, something going on in the kitchens in China may be a clue to the source of SARS. Elizabeth Rosental writes that "Scientists have always considered the teeming farms of southern China, where animals and people crowd together as ideal breeding grounds for new human viruses, which can jump between species under such conditions. So it was no surprise in March when the World Health Organization said it believed that SARS originated in Guangdong. But when a World Health Organization delegation went to look at data on the earliest SARS cases, they found few farmers among the victims. Instead what jumped out was an odd preponderance of food handlers and chefs--about 5 percent of the first 900 patients, as opposed to less than 1 percent among patients with normal pneumonia."
While the food source could be a number of different things, it must be noted that it is already clear that pork in China is an obvious suspect, given the fact that China has a PRRS epidemic in its pigs and that AIDS-like illness paves the way for all kinds of infections, including coronavirus.
Meanwhile, The Age, an Australian publication, is reporting that one of its top AIDS researchers thinks that Chinese pigs may be the source of SARS. Professor Ron Penny told the paper that "SARS may have come from pigs in southern China, but the theory was only speculative."
Click here for a database on SARS and pigs.
Charles Ortleb is the author of The Closing Argument and the co-author of The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Follies.
SARS CASES WERE CHEFS AND
FOOD HANDLERS
By Charles Ortleb
According to a report in today's New York Times, something going on in the kitchens in China may be a clue to the source of SARS. Elizabeth Rosental writes that "Scientists have always considered the teeming farms of southern China, where animals and people crowd together as ideal breeding grounds for new human viruses, which can jump between species under such conditions. So it was no surprise in March when the World Health Organization said it believed that SARS originated in Guangdong. But when a World Health Organization delegation went to look at data on the earliest SARS cases, they found few farmers among the victims. Instead what jumped out was an odd preponderance of food handlers and chefs--about 5 percent of the first 900 patients, as opposed to less than 1 percent among patients with normal pneumonia."
While the food source could be a number of different things, it must be noted that it is already clear that pork in China is an obvious suspect, given the fact that China has a PRRS epidemic in its pigs and that AIDS-like illness paves the way for all kinds of infections, including coronavirus.
Meanwhile, The Age, an Australian publication, is reporting that one of its top AIDS researchers thinks that Chinese pigs may be the source of SARS. Professor Ron Penny told the paper that "SARS may have come from pigs in southern China, but the theory was only speculative."
Click here for a database on SARS and pigs.
Charles Ortleb is the author of The Closing Argument and the co-author of The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Follies.
