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SARS links

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Section 34 Entry 0001. 2003 March 28 Friday
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It would be irresponsible to describe SARS as "global plague which threatens to wipe out humanity". At this writing, SARS - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - seems to be a manageable problem. However, like the war in Iraq, this is a problem which may only be beginning.

According to an article in the International Herald Tribune as published in Japan today, 2003 March 28, SARS has so far "killed at least 53 people, mostly in Asia, and infected 1,300 in more than a dozen countries".

Now the interesting part of the article is that SARS seems to be a new coronavirus, and the coronaviruses are described as "the second leading cause of colds in humans". So what's so interesting about that?

Well - you had a cold last year. Right? And this year you're going to get one again. You had a cold last year and you fought off the virus, but fighting off the virus did not provide you with lasting immunity.

The IHT article quotes a professor of microbiology by the name of Malik Peiris, who drives home the point. He speaks of these new bugs, saying "If we find they behave like a cold, you can get the same cold again and again."

Now, the article does not draw out the consequences of this. However, the consequences seem obvious enough.

At the moment, scientists are still busy trying to figure out exactly what this new bug is, and exactly how to handle it. However, it seems to be spread by droplet infection. Your hand touches something - a button in an elevator, for example - and then your hand touches your mouth, or your nose, or your eyes. And the bug spreads to you.

(Health advice? Wash your hands. Don't touch your mouth. Don't touch your nose. Don't touch your eyes. Wipe potentially contaminated surfaces with "rubbing alcohol," whatever that is.)

To get to the consequences -

And here it has to be stressed that this is venturing into the realm of science fiction, since science fact has not yet gone far enough to figure out where this new bug is taking us -

To get to the consequences, if we have something loose on the planet which is as mobile as the common cold, and which can strike the same individual repeatedly (as the common cold does) and yet which can kill people (strong, healthy people who are at the peak of physical fitness) then we are in Bad News City.

While it is the war which has me in its emotional grip, on the level of personal calculation I have been keeping an uneasy eye on this SARS problem. So far, if the authorities can be believed, the SARS virus has not yet reached Japan.

However, I'm very conscious of the fact that the Tokyo-Yokohama area in which I live is really just one big petri dish. I'm always traveling through this area in crowded trains - in fact, I'm finishing off this particular entry on a train, heading home from work - and my work as an English teacher tends to bring me into contact with quite a range of people even when I'm not traveling.

The SARS outbreak gives me yet another good reason to buy the daily newspaper, and to read it, cover to cover.

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SARS links

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