From: matus (matus@snet.net)
Date: Thu Apr 10 2003 - 10:55:59 MDT
"Super-Pneumonia" or Super Scare?
By Michael Fumento
Scripps Howard News Service, March 26, 2003
Copyright 2003 Scripps Howard News Service
from - http://www.fumento.com/disease/sars.html
Excerpt -
"It is the worst medical disaster I have ever seen," the Dean of Medicine at
the Chinese University in Hong Kong told a prominent Asian newspaper. This
irresistible quote was then shot 'round the world by other media, seeking
desperately to hype the "mysterious killer pneumonia" or "super-pneumonia."
But a bit of knowledge and perspective will kill this panic.
Start with those scary tags. "Mysterious" in modern medicine usually means
we haven't yet quite identified the cause, although it appears we have now
done so here. What's been officially named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
(SARS) appears to be one or more strains of coronavirus, commonly associated
with colds.
"Killer pneumonia" is practically a redundancy, since so many types of
pneumonia (there are over 50) do kill.
The real questions are: How lethal, how transmissible, and how treatable is
this strain? And the answers leave no grounds for excitement, much less
panic. Super?
At this writing, SARS appears to have killed 49 people out of 1323 afflicted
according to the World Health Organization, a death rate of less than four
percent. In Hong Kong, that alleged "worst medical disaster" has killed ten
people out of 316 known victims. But since this only takes into account
those ill enough to seek medical help, the actual ratio of deaths to
infections is certainly far less.
- end excerpt
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