SARS: Interesting Data
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.
