Saturday, July 05, 2003
THE NEXT SARS EPIDEMIC
Maybe you ain't seen nothing yet
By Charles Ortleb
While the media is celebrating what seems to be the disappearance of SARS from the face of the earth, there is a dark undercurrent to some of the news stories and there are some rather unpleasant facts that still have not been faced head-on.
There is still the matter of the animal reservoir. Nobody is giving a straight answer on this issue. Are civet cats the primary source or just the first place researchers looked? What about reports that pigs, snakes and bats also test positive? Is pork in China infected with the SARS-associated coronavirus? How about Canada. Are Canadian hams free of SARS? Has anyone bothered to check?
Pigs are of special concern because coronaviruses go back and forth easily between people and pigs. And because there are millions of pigs in China and people there live in close proximity. If SARS is seasonal the animal reservoir in October or November could be exponentially larger than the reservoir for the first SARS outbreak. The next SARS epidemic could involve millions of people if the virus is now spreading among the pigs in China. If that happens, there will be an international panic like we have never seen.
And if pigs are infected what will authorities do? Kill every infected pig? That's what they've had to do for some other zoonotic epidemics from pigs--Nipah virus, for one.
The scariest thing about the possibility of pigs being involved is that the pork industry will do everything it can to keep a lid on it. And it will have great support from pig researchers who seem to be more concerned about the industry than the health of people.
The media is missing a big one here. Newsday's Laurie Garrett has done some decent writing on SARS, but she's dropped the ball where pigs are concerned. When she talks about animals and SARS the word "pig" does not cross her lips. Very peculiar. Pigs are the SARS reservoir that dare not speak its name.
There could be one benefit for the world if pigs are the source of SARS. Everyone will want to know more about the health of pigs and people are bound to find out that pigs have AIDS all over the world. It's called "PRRS" and if you don't know what that is, go directly to Google, type in "PRRS and pigs" and don't pass go.
Charles Ortleb is the author of The Closing Argument and the co-author of The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Follies.
Maybe you ain't seen nothing yet
By Charles Ortleb
While the media is celebrating what seems to be the disappearance of SARS from the face of the earth, there is a dark undercurrent to some of the news stories and there are some rather unpleasant facts that still have not been faced head-on.
There is still the matter of the animal reservoir. Nobody is giving a straight answer on this issue. Are civet cats the primary source or just the first place researchers looked? What about reports that pigs, snakes and bats also test positive? Is pork in China infected with the SARS-associated coronavirus? How about Canada. Are Canadian hams free of SARS? Has anyone bothered to check?
Pigs are of special concern because coronaviruses go back and forth easily between people and pigs. And because there are millions of pigs in China and people there live in close proximity. If SARS is seasonal the animal reservoir in October or November could be exponentially larger than the reservoir for the first SARS outbreak. The next SARS epidemic could involve millions of people if the virus is now spreading among the pigs in China. If that happens, there will be an international panic like we have never seen.
And if pigs are infected what will authorities do? Kill every infected pig? That's what they've had to do for some other zoonotic epidemics from pigs--Nipah virus, for one.
The scariest thing about the possibility of pigs being involved is that the pork industry will do everything it can to keep a lid on it. And it will have great support from pig researchers who seem to be more concerned about the industry than the health of people.
The media is missing a big one here. Newsday's Laurie Garrett has done some decent writing on SARS, but she's dropped the ball where pigs are concerned. When she talks about animals and SARS the word "pig" does not cross her lips. Very peculiar. Pigs are the SARS reservoir that dare not speak its name.
There could be one benefit for the world if pigs are the source of SARS. Everyone will want to know more about the health of pigs and people are bound to find out that pigs have AIDS all over the world. It's called "PRRS" and if you don't know what that is, go directly to Google, type in "PRRS and pigs" and don't pass go.
Charles Ortleb is the author of The Closing Argument and the co-author of The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Follies.
