O/t: Sars

[nafnikufesin]

Here I am, sitting in my office, wearing a surgical mask, having cancelled most of my patients for the rest of the week (and the ones I haven't cancelled, I'm making house calls), so there ain't a whole lot to do in my office. All this because of the SARS outbreak, even though there hasn't been a single reported case at the hospital I work at, but they want to take precautions. At the end of the day, I will leave this empty building, take off my mask, and get on a crowded subway where people are coughing and sneezing all over the place, and I might stop in the crowded grocery store on the way home...it all seems a little ridiculous.

Has the SARS outbreak affected anyone else?

 

[bRaTpRiNcEsS]

It's on the news every so often, but I haven't heard of an outbreak anywhere near me, if in the US at all.

 

[mrthrax]

a health expert on australia tv said that most cases were prob a common flu,he said people are becoming so sanitised today,would u agree with that nff?

if i get sick i usually just sit it out and let it take its course,i saw a report that they are using a hospital antibacterial agent in nearly all cleaning products,the kids of today are too sanitised which leads to more lethal viruses creeping in!

am i right doctor nff?

 

[Cincy Vigilante]

It seems like its getting worse, every day I hear more and more...

 

[ThraxDude]

I heard on the radio that two nurses came back from China with the symptoms.
They are quarantined in Boulder somewhere. I'm not gonna worry about it though...

"What, Me Worry?"
-Alfred E. Newman

 

[nafnikufesin]

a health expert on australia tv said that most cases were prob a common flu,he said people are becoming so sanitised today,would u agree with that nff?

if i get sick i usually just sit it out and let it take its course,i saw a report that they are using a hospital antibacterial agent in nearly all cleaning products,the kids of today are too sanitised which leads to more lethal viruses creeping in!

am i right doctor nff?

The virus is a mutation of a common cold virus, so it spreads easily and there's no treatment for it.

There's something to be said for being too sanitized, mrthrax. For one, using antibacterial soaps instead of regular soap has not been shown to reduce the incidence of infection, but has allowed more resistant strains of bacteria to develop; the same with overuse of antibiotics for nonthreatening conditions (ie. prescribing antibiotics for the cold, which amounts to a placebo effect anyway).

Second, although kids who enter day-cares experience more episodes of minor infections at a young age, there is some suggestion that this has a protective effect later on, as the child develops an immunity. (You can never catch the same cold twice because you become immune...the problem is that there are over 200 known cold viruses).

 

[Jono]

right, also children who are around stable animals alot of the time are less prone to allergies and illness. it was tested in ireland.
-Jono-

 

[strik9]

Ya. My Grandma can't leave her building because of SARS. It seems that in Canada, as long as you have a pulse you are accepted into the country. Last year they let some dude from Trinidad with TB into the country without screening him!!! He ended up infecting 4 people in Hamilton (who died)!!! I have nothing against immigrants or people of different cultures, but they gotta test for diseases!

 

[ThraxDude]

N.F.F.-
SOooo... if you've had every cold that is known of, and then some, are you Superman? Is it possible to have had every cold virus there is? Thus making it impossible for you to catch a cold?
Or do the mutations change to new colds that can infect you even though you're immune to the original? (Does that make sense?)

(This may be a very dumb question, but I have an excuse......I graduated from Evergreen High School [Colorado].)

 

[ThraxDude]

BTW-
My sister started reading The Stand (again) right before this SARS thing....or "superflu" or "Captian Tripps"....broke out.........

 

[nafnikufesin]

N.F.F.-
SOooo... if you've had every cold that is known of, and then some, are you Superman? Is it possible to have had every cold virus there is? Thus making it impossible for you to catch a cold?
Or do the mutations change to new colds that can infect you even though you're immune to the original? (Does that make sense?)

You can be infected by the new mutations even if you're immune to the original...that's partly why they mutate so easily: for survival. Otherwise, once everybody had caught that particular virus, it would die out because it wouldn't have anyone new to infect and replicate in.