It's in HK. There's a big spread on it in the local English paper. Many people are going around HK with masks on to prevent catching it (like people in Japan do). Advise people to frequently wash their hands as well especially after sneezing, blowing nose, coughing. And throw away the tissue immediately!
hope our resident BF doctor is taking care of himself. i heard 1/2 of the cases are doctors and nurses. in the case of Japan, i think the ones who have the cold/flu are the one who wears the mask out of consideration of others (quite a nice thing to do actually). but in this case, ppl in HK are trying to not contract the pneumonia from others by wearing the masks themselves.
Yeah, I read about it. People wearing masks around? Good idea...but if you have it I'll say just stay at home.
Trouble with that is you'll infect family and visitors (unless you live alone). There is a big group of medical students involved. They were having a teaching session on the first affected patient. Imagine leaning over with the stethoscope to listen to the chest after the guy has just sneezed. People are recovering though. It's just that some people get a really bad lung reaction which is why quite a few need intensive care.
Name update. The name of the Atypical Pneumonia should be referred to as Severe Respiratory Syndrome (SRS). The HKers did this because the previous abbreviation was called 'SARS'. Unfortunately Hong Kong is known as 'HKSAR'......the SAR standing for Special Administrative region. Therefore, the previous term 'SARS' was undesirable. I think it was the WHO that gave the name SARS to the disease. I think that wasn't so good. The lung reaction is more commonly know as 'ARDS' (acute respiratory distress syndrome) so a term of SARDS (severe ARDS) is probably more appropriate. err, did anybody follow that? Now China has releaed some official figures. It's somewhere in the region of nearly 800 cases. It could well be more as these figures are only compiled on a monthly basis!!. Other figures around the world are compiled on a daily basis. Overall, around the world there are aproximately 1300 confirmed cases. Usually transmission of infection is by very close contact in confined areas. It is thought the first case sneezed/coughed in a lift and and the other people were unfortunately sharing the same area. Lots of droplets containing the virus gets out into the air. How can you help? well, improving your own basic personal hygiene is very important: Wash hands frequently esp after coughing/sneezing Cover your mouth if you sneeze/cough using a tissue (not handkerchief) - dispose of tissue straight away
I'm sorry I've been really behind in terms of news for the past year (no TV) is this pneumonia the same species as the typical pneumonia? or is it a mutant species?
JChen, you could try reading the newspapers So far the investigations point to another variant but there may be two different viruses involved. Not enough information known yet as this is a new disease. In perhaps 10% of cases, there is a very, very severe lung reaction which some people have died from. The other 90% get a milder form (but still very uncomfortable). In Singapore, all schools have been closed as a precaution. Acute, in this case, is arising suddenly.
Cheung.....I caught about 1/2 of what you were saying... Well, it's good enough. Lol. People recovering you say? That's good news.
ic... thx for the info. btw, newspapers are cut too -_-" yes... I DO feel lik I'm living in isolation and I spend all the time I do online here... and all the news sites here in north america are more clogged with reports of the mid-east than anything else... so... haha ^^"
Here's a link with up-to-date and detailed info on SARS, also known as atypical pneumonia: http://www.medscape.com/pages/editorial/public/toc-sars Cheers, Mike
How's the antibody vaccines coming? Since there are people who are alrady recovering from the disease, shouldn't they started on the research on vaccines yet?
It likely involves avoiding contacts with other people (i.e. staying at home) in the interval between suspected exposure and the apparition of initial symptoms (if any).
You need to isolate the cause of infection in the first place...Right now, there appears to be a correlation (not proven to be a causal link yet) with a new virus (see article in medscape link). Tests are also apparently under way with standard antivirals to see whether they are effective against this suspected virus.
NOt much has worked so far and about 10% of people get a severe form of the disease. That's what is so frightning - speed of infection of other people and lack of real cure. No vaccine because new virus. Hey JChen, you should know about this if you are doing biochem....
Well, there ARE people who are already recovering from the disease, I though they'd do something to try to extract the antibodies from those who are recovering and try to produce something similar or something like that. Cheung, unfortunately since I'm only first year I gotta go through all the un-related topics of GENERAL biology and GENERAL chemistry... and *the pain in it all too*
