WHO Final Statistical Report:

Communist China and Communist Vietnam had the lowest death rates of any nation with a significant outbreak, excepting the United States. 7% and 8% respectively. Compare that to Free China at 11%, Hong Kong at 17%, or Canada at 17%. Is anyone willing to accept the Communists’ numbers are anything near accurate?

Communist China reported that 19% of its cases were among healthcare workers, again the lowest percentage of any nation with a significant outbreak, excepting the United States. Vietnam reported that 57% of its cases were in healthcare workers. Canada had 43% of its cases in that group.

The United States had a final total of 27 cases with no fatal cases. That’s less than half of the number that being reported for a long time, and one that I’m far more comfortable with. For much of the epidemic the United States was reporting over 60 cases. That was just too high for me to be comfortable in believing that there were no deaths related to SARS. We had no HCW cases, either, which has as much to do with our reaction to known threats as sheer luck. America knew SARS was coming and we appear to have taken each potential case seriously. Yay, us!

The SARS epidemic shows how we might handle an as-yet unknown epidemic. With a caveat or two, though. If it’s a surprise, we might not do as well. Yet, I would put our general abilities right at the top of the heap for handling an epidemic. SARS was also a “cooties” disease, meaning that you have to get close to catch it. Like Marburg, keeping your distance from an infected patient truly limits your chances of catching the disease. A virus like smallpox or influenza that can live in the open air for a longer period of time presents a different potential and would be far more challenging to handle. When push comes to shove, however, I’d rather be here than in Angola. As bad as any epidemic might be here, it will devastate the poor nations. And there’s nothing we can do about it at this moment.

WHO Final Statistical Report:

Communist China and Communist Vietnam had the lowest death rates of any nation with a significant outbreak, excepting the United States. 7% and 8% respectively. Compare that to Free China at 11%, Hong Kong at 17%, or Canada at 17%. Is anyone willing to accept the Communists’ numbers are anything near accurate?

Communist China reported that 19% of its cases were among healthcare workers, again the lowest percentage of any nation with a significant outbreak, excepting the United States. Vietnam reported that 57% of its cases were in healthcare workers. Canada had 43% of its cases in that group.

The United States had a final total of 27 cases with no fatal cases. That’s less than half of the number that being reported for a long time, and one that I’m far more comfortable with. For much of the epidemic the United States was reporting over 60 cases. That was just too high for me to be comfortable in believing that there were no deaths related to SARS. We had no HCW cases, either, which has as much to do with our reaction to known threats as sheer luck. America knew SARS was coming and we appear to have taken each potential case seriously. Yay, us!

The SARS epidemic shows how we might handle an as-yet unknown epidemic. With a caveat or two, though. If it’s a surprise, we might not do as well. Yet, I would put our general abilities right at the top of the heap for handling an epidemic. SARS was also a “cooties” disease, meaning that you have to get close to catch it. Like Marburg, keeping your distance from an infected patient truly limits your chances of catching the disease. A virus like smallpox or influenza that can live in the open air for a longer period of time presents a different potential and would be far more challenging to handle. When push comes to shove, however, I’d rather be here than in Angola. As bad as any epidemic might be here, it will devastate the poor nations. And there’s nothing we can do about it at this moment.

No, not really. As I read the story, this is a researcher who got sloppy in the lab. He could still generate an outbreak but this is not SARS in the “wild”, just stupidity. AGAIN! Hard to understand the constant carelessness on the part of people working with this illness.

UPDATE:

Yahoo news

TAIPEI, Taiwan – A torn plastic trash bag that leaked liquid contaminated with the SARS (news – web sites) virus was the likely cause of Taiwan’s first infection in five months, investigators said Friday.

The bag was handled by the 44-year-old scientist who apparently became infected in his military laboratory while studying how Chinese medicinal herbs affect the highly contagious virus, investigator Chang Shang-tsun said at a news conference.

Chang declined to say whether the laboratory was properly run by the scientist, identified only by his rank and surname, Lt. Col. Chan. The investigation results were preliminary and the researcher will be questioned further once he recovers, he said.

“You can’t blame him. His workload was very heavy,” Chang said.

The mishap happened when the scientist was cleaning his Taipei lab on Dec. 6 ‘ four days before he developed a fever and other SARS symptoms, said Chang, an official at National Taiwan University Hospital in Taipei.

When the scientist found the ripped bag, he assumed it had been leaking for several days and he placed it on a trash cart, Chang said.

“The investigators think the researcher thought the virus had already lost its effectiveness,” Chang said.

Two positive samples of the virus were found in the lab during an inspection Thursday, he said. One was on the handle of an alcohol spray bottle, and the other was on a light switch on a glass cabinet that contained materials used in experiments.

Chang said investigators still have to ask the scientist whether he was wearing protective gloves and a gown. But he added that Chan’s lab was designed so that researchers do not have to wear such safety gear constantly.

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST! HOW STUPID ARE THESE PEOPLE?

Well, they’re still hashing out the last epidemic, and making correction. Free China has done the medical forensics and their numbers drop. WHO Lowers Reported SARS Cases in Taiwan

By ANNIE HUANG, Associated Press Writer

TAIPEI, Taiwan – The World Health Organization (news – web sites) has drastically lowered the number of reported SARS (news – web sites) cases in Taiwan in this year’s outbreak, after laboratory tests showed about half had other ailments.

The recorded cases fell from 682 to 346, while the number killed by severe acute respiratory syndrome dropped to 37 from the earlier reported 84, according to the WHO Web site.

Taiwan reduced by about a half the numbers it provided the Geneva-based U.N. agency after tests showed many of the cases reported during the February-June outbreak were not SARS, the Taiwanese Center of Disease Control said Friday.

The revision “was all largely due to having the opportunity to go back and test the samples of probable SARS cases,” said WHO spokesman Dick Thompson in Geneva. He said many countries have made small changes but Taiwan’s was by far the biggest.

Many of those listed as SARS patients were quarantined after they developed the disease’s symptoms, including fever and lung infections, officials said.

But many had developed pneumonia caused by viruses other than SARS, and many of the deaths were elderly men and women with chronic illnesses who were misdiagnosed, the officials said.

The highly contagious disease killed more than 900 and sickened more than 8,400 people before WHO declared in June that it had been “stopped dead in its tracks.”

Taiwan was the third hardest hit by SARS after mainland China and Hong Kong. China had 5,327 infections and 349 deaths, and Hong Kong had 1,755 cases with 299 dead.

A report Thursday in Hong Kong said health officials were caught off guard by the SARS crisis, and their response was hampered by poor planning and sloppy communications.

The report said Hong Kong was placed at a disadvantage by a lack of information from China’s neighboring Guangdong province, where the disease originated last November.

Hong Kong had a 17.1 percent fatality rate from SARS, the experts compiling the report said, compared with 6.6 percent in mainland China and 27.1 percent in Taiwan.

“Overall the epidemic in Hong Kong was handled well, although there were clearly significant shortcomings of system performance during the early days of the epidemic when little was known about the disease or its cause,” the report said.

The report, which found fault with Hong Kong’s health system but not the officials, drew harsh criticism Friday and demands for a separate legislative inquiry into what went wrong.

In China and Taiwan, top health officials lost their jobs over problems in the response to SARS.

“How could you say no one was culpable for an epidemic that infected more than 1,700 people and killed almost 300?” asked lawmaker Michael Mak, who is a registered nurse.

Here’s the latest table from WHO: LINK

The interesting thing about this table is that they included the death rate, and they listed the numbers of health care workers who got SARS (21% of total cases!). Communist China continues to have the lowest death rate among major outbreaks, and it’s a lie.

Also, time to remember that SARS began in November last year. If we’re going to see another outbreak, it will begin in the next two months.

Please note that Communist China somehow managed to have the lowest mortality in the world. Its low rate distorts the worldwide rate because its cases represent nearly two thirds of the cases worldwide. I do not believe their numbers. The All Others category is low primarily because most of the nations included in it had less than ten cases and could devote a significant amount of medical effort to the cases they had. Vietnam had five of the deaths in that category, all others two or less.

The numbers are taken from the July 11, 2000 WHO report.