Is the SARS Virus Really Controlled?

There are a lot of emerging diseases reported in the news these days that are severe enough to cause numerous precautionary actions. One of these recently new diseases is SARS or severe acute respiratory syndrome. It's caused by a virus called a corona virus. It was first discovered in February 2003 in Asia and within a few months, had spread to almost every continent and to more than 20 countries throughout the world. During the outbreak, almost 800 people died from the disease and more than 8,000 became sick. Diseases like SARS are becoming more evident due to the fact that the human population is growing and expanding into areas where people did not used to live. Exposure to animals carrying diseases is now becoming more common.

SARS passes to humans via contact with infected animals such as the civet cat in Asia. Asians that had close contact with the civet cats, whether they were capturing them for food or for sale, the virus is believed to have changed enough that it infected humans. From there, it was very easily spread from human to human through droplets sprayed out from coughing or sneezing. Once the virus gets onto a surface, it can still infect a person who touches it and then touches their eyes, nose or mouth. Scientists also believe that the virus can get into the air and could possibly be spread on the wind. Even though the outbreak of 2003 was contained, most researchers do not believe that it has disappeared. They believe that it has simply be driven back for a while and will emerge again, causing an equal amount of damage.

People infected with the SARS virus will show symptoms that include a fever and other flu like symptoms such as headaches and muscle aches. It takes anywhere from a couple of days to a week for the stronger symptoms such as a cough to show up. Doctors have reported that most patients end up with pneumonia and some get even worse and die. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control or CDC worked very hard in response to the SARS outbreak. They sent hundreds of doctors and researchers to the countries where the outbreak was worse and performed laboratory research to determine exactly what the virus was and how to treat infection. In China, thousands of the civet cats were killed as a precautionary measure to try to reduce the incidence of infection. Even though the SARS epidemic was controlled, there is still a lot of concern about other emerging viruses, but until a cure for viral infections is discovered, people will just have to be careful around animals and practice general cleanliness habits.