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Hello one and all. This is an essay I did not too long ago when SARS was still very big. I really dont know why Im posting it here I just want to get some of my works out. Please leave comments.
SARS, the Facts
In 2003 a disease broke out causing mass panic which swept the world over. A new killer disease we had no idea how to handle. With fevers of 100.4°F and a dry cough the world was frightened. Caused by an unknown form of the corona virus, treatments were unknown and are still unknown. With minimal deaths it was still horrible. Lack of equipment killed more. New research proves that it can travel through the air will only cause more panic. Not many people know the facts about this disease but the facts are there, you just have look for them. Here are that facts as we know them, here is the truth.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory illness. This means it is a virus that attacks the lungs. It is believed that you can catch SARS through close contact to an infected patient. There is an incubation period after infection of two to ten days before symptoms occur. Reports have indicated that incubation can proceed over the ten day mark but is not the normal. In most cases the first symptom is a high fever of 100.4°F and greater. Other symptoms may include chills, headaches, body aches and an overall feeling of discomfort. Ten to twenty percent of all patients get diarrhea. After two to seven days, patients may develop a dry cough. The cough can lead to hypoxemia, characterized by reduced oxygen concentration in the blood. Almost all patients develop pneumonia; around twenty percent require assistance in breathing, by intubation or mechanical ventilation.
SARS is caused by a previously unknown form of the corona virus. The corona virus is a virus that causes respiratory diseases in humans. It is shaped like a crown and is linked to pneumonia making this virus the most likely candidate to be the cause of SARS which in fact it was. Even though the cause has been found, more research is still needed to produce and provide a cure for SARS. In the meantime The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Heath Organization (WHO) recommend treating SARS like any other form of atypical pneumonia. Although effectiveness is still uncertain this procedure includes such treatment as antibiotics, antiviral agents and steroids.
When SARS first broke out it was considered a very deadly disease and caused mass panic. However, the media exaggerated its severity to the extent of foolishness. The only recorded outbreak of SARS, first reported on the twelfth of March 2003, was wide spread as it infected close to thirty nations world wide. According to WHO a total of eight thousand ninety-eight people were infected with SARS. Of that, seven hundred seventy-four died or 9.5 percent of the total infected. Only forty-four of the infected died in the Greater Toronto Region (GTA). This proves that SARS is not as much of a threat as first expected because out of the world’s population that is barely a sliver.
The SARS outbreak was not handled well by world health organizations such as the WHO and CDC. Even though organizations and hospitals managed to keep SARS under control with intensive quarantine, care in hospitals, and other such things, they did not give enough equipment to the cause. Such equipment included respirators, masks,, steroids, antiviral agents, and antibiotics. Once the outbreak settled down a bit, the doctors ignored it leading to nurses getting sick from close contact while caring for the patients. It took too long to get the outbreak totally under control.
As of the twenty-fourth of March, 2005, new research into SARS appears to show that it can transfer through the air as well as by touch and close contact. This in turn makes it seem as if SARS is more contagious than first thought. After a study, the SARS corona virus was found floating around in a room where patients of SARS were occupied. This could explain how people living in adjacent apartment buildings to patients in Hong Kong received it without direct contact. The study also found the virus on a television remote control, a bed table, and a refrigerator door, all found in a nurse’s station. It transferred through the air from patients’ rooms and, even though not viable, it suggests the need for stricter infection control. Until now scientists have believed that SARS is only transferable through small water droplets released in close contact coughing, but in reality, the virus is an “opportunistic air-borne infection” similar to the cold. This makes SARS less viable then influenza but spread much more easily. The flu normally spreads to about ten other people but an opportunistic infection spreads to only one or two, ergo, if SARS were like the flu the problem would have been much worse. Even though the research proves it can be found in the air this does not prove it can be transferred through the air. This is so because no cases of airborne infection have been recorded.
In general SARS should not be feared as much as it has been. The media pulls the truth out from under us just to get ratings. Yes, SARS is still a threat but it is manageable. We as a society need to understand that the media is just a business trying to make a profit. Our own opinions are what make us who we are, not the medias. SARS threatened to destroy us and we panicked, but that is not the worst of things, if another disease comes around that’s even worse than SARS will humans just panic and die or will our intelligence be un-skewed by the media. SARS did kill many people but Cancer and AIDS kills many more. Our society needs to un-cloud its eyes before it’s to late, before our society dies.
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Last edited by Susan on Tue Jan 03, 2006 10:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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