Researchers think that some people may be more susceptible to SARS than others, and that some may be “Super Spreaders”?Typhoid Mary types who are able to spread SARS rapidly to others. 26-year-old flight attendant Esther Mok is one of these. She went to Hong Kong to shop but came home with SARS, and spread it to over 100 people in Singapore, killing both of her parents and her pastor.
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Experts trying to explain how SARS infected an entire apartment building in Hong Kong now think the cause was cockroaches, who carried the infection from apartment to apartment. It’s a unique situation because the disease spread so quickly?with more than 300 new cases in just a few days. Most of those who became infected did not have contact with anyone who had SARS. Hong Kong Deputy Director of Health Leung Pak-yin says, “The drainage may be the reason. It is possible that the cockroaches carried the virus into the homes.”
We used to think we were safe from SARS if we stayed off airplanes coming from China or Hong Kong. We also vowed to stay out of subways and crowded movie theaters and to avoid anyone with flu symptoms. But cockroaches? Get out the bug spray.
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We’ve finally taken a cue from the Canadians and passed a bill allowing us to quarantine SARS patients against their will, if necessary. Why wasn’t this done in China? Instead, SARS was kept secret by their government-controlled media. A Western journalist describes taking a plane for Guangzhou, the province where SARS originated, and noticing “that I was the only passenger wearing a protective face mask. My fellow travelers, all Chinese, aimed curious looks in my direction.” He overheard one man say to his girlfriend, “Why is that foreigner wearing a mask?”
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Historical epidemiologist Peter Curson says a lot more infectious diseases like SARS will be spreading worldwide in the future due to our underestimation of the power of viruses and bacteria. He says SARS is a monster of man’s own making, along with other new diseases like AIDS and Ebola. Human behavior has created a situation where basically benign infections that exist in the environment or among animals and humans become newly powerful. Eating bush meat started the spread of Ebola in Africa and inadequate sanitary practices spread it; dangerous sexual practices spread AIDS and international travel has spread SARS.
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