Wednesday, May 21, 2003
THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
IS STILL NOT RULING OUT PIGS
AS THE SOURCE OF SARS
By Charles Ortleb
Despite a recent announcement that scientists in Canada had shown that chickens and pigs could not become infected, a virologist with the World Health Organization said today that the organization had still not ruled out chickens and pigs as a possible source of SARS. According to an Australian Broadcasting Corporation story, WHO virologist Mark Salter said that "there was still 'some significant concern as to where the disease originated'. He also told ABC that "animals were being investigated as one possible source in China." The story quotes Salter as saying that scientists "are looking at pigs and chickens and various forms of fowl."
From a treatment point of view, it might be good news if SARS is a pig disease because of some recent progress made in treating coronaviruses in pigs. On May 19, Businesswire reported that Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc. revealed "the results of a "double-blinded" independent study conducted in a pig population suffering from the pig coronavirus, after therapeutic intervention with one of the company's lead Products, Alferon N. Newborn piglets, treated with Alferon N, even in low doses, had significantly greater survival rates than placebo-treated, control, piglets."
A story we reported on days ago in this column continues to haunt us and certainly merits an immediate investigation. We ran this item on May 14:
Where the pig-SARS connection is concerned, the real smoking gun may have appeared in an anecdote in a story published yesterday. Gady A. Epstein, of the Baltimore Sun Foreign Staff, wrote a fascinating story about a farmer in the Chinese area where SARS is thought to have originated. Epstein found a farm where what sounds like SARS-like epidemic in pigs may have occurred. Epstein interviewed a woman named Zheng Haocai who lives with her husband on a farm south of Guangzhou. Her shack of a farmhouse is "cobbled together out of aluminum, lumber, tarpaper and plastic sheeting." According to Epstein, "Zheng is unable to afford feed for her pigs, so they eat factory and restaurant garbage, served out of blue plastic barrels of unidentifiable dark sludge that she buys for $2.50 a barrel."
In what could turn out to be the most important reporting on SARS to date, Epstein writes that "at feeding time, her chickens join the feast, pecking near the porkers and, in the end stall, among a handful of pigs set apart from the others. This small group, Zheng said, had recovered from a strange virus that struck dozens of her pigs with flu and diarrhea a few months ago." And Epstein reports that the woman said, "This year we've had a lot of pigs get sick, and even when I give them medicine, they don't get better."
Epstein also reported that "a few feet from the pen lies an open box filled with empty syringes, used medicine bottles and torn packets of fever remedies that Zheng used with little success. Out of a group of 80 pigs she bought this year, she said, half died." Epstein reported that the woman said, "They got fever and didn't want to eat."
Hopefully, somebody at the CDC and WHO will read Epstein's story.
IS STILL NOT RULING OUT PIGS
AS THE SOURCE OF SARS
By Charles Ortleb
Despite a recent announcement that scientists in Canada had shown that chickens and pigs could not become infected, a virologist with the World Health Organization said today that the organization had still not ruled out chickens and pigs as a possible source of SARS. According to an Australian Broadcasting Corporation story, WHO virologist Mark Salter said that "there was still 'some significant concern as to where the disease originated'. He also told ABC that "animals were being investigated as one possible source in China." The story quotes Salter as saying that scientists "are looking at pigs and chickens and various forms of fowl."
From a treatment point of view, it might be good news if SARS is a pig disease because of some recent progress made in treating coronaviruses in pigs. On May 19, Businesswire reported that Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc. revealed "the results of a "double-blinded" independent study conducted in a pig population suffering from the pig coronavirus, after therapeutic intervention with one of the company's lead Products, Alferon N. Newborn piglets, treated with Alferon N, even in low doses, had significantly greater survival rates than placebo-treated, control, piglets."
A story we reported on days ago in this column continues to haunt us and certainly merits an immediate investigation. We ran this item on May 14:
Where the pig-SARS connection is concerned, the real smoking gun may have appeared in an anecdote in a story published yesterday. Gady A. Epstein, of the Baltimore Sun Foreign Staff, wrote a fascinating story about a farmer in the Chinese area where SARS is thought to have originated. Epstein found a farm where what sounds like SARS-like epidemic in pigs may have occurred. Epstein interviewed a woman named Zheng Haocai who lives with her husband on a farm south of Guangzhou. Her shack of a farmhouse is "cobbled together out of aluminum, lumber, tarpaper and plastic sheeting." According to Epstein, "Zheng is unable to afford feed for her pigs, so they eat factory and restaurant garbage, served out of blue plastic barrels of unidentifiable dark sludge that she buys for $2.50 a barrel."
In what could turn out to be the most important reporting on SARS to date, Epstein writes that "at feeding time, her chickens join the feast, pecking near the porkers and, in the end stall, among a handful of pigs set apart from the others. This small group, Zheng said, had recovered from a strange virus that struck dozens of her pigs with flu and diarrhea a few months ago." And Epstein reports that the woman said, "This year we've had a lot of pigs get sick, and even when I give them medicine, they don't get better."
Epstein also reported that "a few feet from the pen lies an open box filled with empty syringes, used medicine bottles and torn packets of fever remedies that Zheng used with little success. Out of a group of 80 pigs she bought this year, she said, half died." Epstein reported that the woman said, "They got fever and didn't want to eat."
Hopefully, somebody at the CDC and WHO will read Epstein's story.
Tuesday, May 20, 2003
IS SARS BEING COVERED UP
AT A CALIFORNIA HOSPITAL?
A story in the Sierra Times by Carl F. Worden suggests that something bizarre is going on at a hospital in Vallejo, California. According to Worden's story, "While the evidence is not conclusive, information pouring in gives all indications of some type of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak has manifested itself in the Kaiser Hospital of Vallejo, California."
Worden's source was Astraea Kelly, a woman who works in the pulmonary unit at Kaiser Hospital in Vallejo. She has been sick since May 5 and she told Worden that "her symptoms began with 3 days of diarrhea, a temperature running between 100 to 101 degrees, heaviness in the chest, wheezing, and she almost had to undergo oxygen therapy." Worden also reported that, "she's still recovering two weeks later. What troubled her was the fact that so many patients in her unit presented the exact same pattern of symptoms. According to Astraea, 20 patients died in a period of one month, including those 12 who died in that period of just 4 days, and all from the same pattern of illness." A number of her co-workers also seem to have contracted the illness.
According to the story, Kelly has been accused by her hospital of using her e-mail for "inappropriare purposes" after she started communicating with her colleagues about the outbreak.
It has amazed many people that there has been no serious outbreak of SARS in America and no fatalities from the syndrome. If Kelly's assessment is accurate, the news has been too good to be true and the CDC has some troubling questions to answer.
AT A CALIFORNIA HOSPITAL?
A story in the Sierra Times by Carl F. Worden suggests that something bizarre is going on at a hospital in Vallejo, California. According to Worden's story, "While the evidence is not conclusive, information pouring in gives all indications of some type of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak has manifested itself in the Kaiser Hospital of Vallejo, California."
Worden's source was Astraea Kelly, a woman who works in the pulmonary unit at Kaiser Hospital in Vallejo. She has been sick since May 5 and she told Worden that "her symptoms began with 3 days of diarrhea, a temperature running between 100 to 101 degrees, heaviness in the chest, wheezing, and she almost had to undergo oxygen therapy." Worden also reported that, "she's still recovering two weeks later. What troubled her was the fact that so many patients in her unit presented the exact same pattern of symptoms. According to Astraea, 20 patients died in a period of one month, including those 12 who died in that period of just 4 days, and all from the same pattern of illness." A number of her co-workers also seem to have contracted the illness.
According to the story, Kelly has been accused by her hospital of using her e-mail for "inappropriare purposes" after she started communicating with her colleagues about the outbreak.
It has amazed many people that there has been no serious outbreak of SARS in America and no fatalities from the syndrome. If Kelly's assessment is accurate, the news has been too good to be true and the CDC has some troubling questions to answer.
