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Sars Nonsense
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/...reut/index.html
LONDON (Reuters) -- Could SARS have come from outer space? Some scientists think so.
Instead of jumping from an unknown animal host in southern China, a few researchers in Britain believe the virus that has baffled medical experts descended from the stratosphere.
"I think it is a possibility that SARS came from space. It is a very strong possibility," Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe told Reuters.
The director of the Cardiff Center for Astrobiology in Wales and a proponent of the theory that life on Earth originated from space, admits the theory defies conventional wisdom.
But in a letter published in The Lancet medical journal on Friday he and his colleagues argue there are too many puzzling aspects about the respiratory illness that has killed nearly 700 people and infected more than 3,800 to dismiss the idea.
Many scientists skeptical
Other virologists believe it simply isn't possible because the virus is too fragile to survive in outer space.
"I think it is completely nuts," said Dr Anne Bridgen, a molecular virologist at the University of Ulster.
"It has a lipid (fatty) coat on the outside and it would tend to dry out in an atmosphere such as space," she told Reuters.
Professor Ian Jones, an expert in virology at the University of Reading in southern England, described the idea as bizarre.
"SARS is a new virus but it is only a new relative of a family of viruses that we understand quite well," he said, referring to the coronavirus family which includes a virus linked to the common cold.
"The difference is that it is a causing a severity of disease that we haven't seen before in the human population."
Wickramasinghe stressed that SARS suddenly appeared in China late last year and is a new coronavirus with a different genetic sequence from similar viruses in animals. Its origin has also not been traced. He believes these factors could suggest it evolved differently and may have come from a far-off place.
Conventional wisdom 'dreadfully amiss'
"There doesn't seem to have been a human origin for this. It seems to have come from somewhere else," said Dr Milton Wainwright, a molecular biologist at the University of Sheffield in England and a co-author of the letter.
"There is a lot of debate about where it could have come from and we are providing an answer," he added.
Wickramasinghe said there is no known virus that has fallen from outer space. "There is no known virus that has been picked up from high in the stratosphere," he said. "Not to date."
Yet Wickramasinghe and Wainwright believe the original outbreak in China is also significant because if the virus did fall to Earth it would most likely land east of the Himalayas, the weakest point in the stratosphere and easiest to break through.
In studies of air samples taken from 25 miles above the Earth, large numbers of micro-organisms were found, Wickramasinghe said, so it is possible SARS came from space.
"The fact that many cases in China cannot be traced to infected people means that something is dreadfully amiss in the idea of conventional wisdom," he said.
A new disease suddenly appears and some people assume it came from space, that's rich. 
The CDC says:
What is the cause of SARS?
Scientists at CDC and other laboratories have detected a previously unrecognized coronavirus in patients with SARS. This new coronavirus is the leading hypothesis for the cause of SARS.
What are coronaviruses?
Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that have a halo or crown-like (corona) appearance when viewed under a microscope. These viruses are a common cause of mild to moderate upper-respiratory illness in humans and are associated with respiratory, gastrointestinal, liver and neurologic disease in animals.
How long can the SARS coronavirus (SARS Co-V) survive in the environment?
Preliminary studies in some research laboratories suggest that the virus may survive in the environment for several days. The length of time that the virus survives likely depends on a number of factors. These factors could include the type of material or body fluid containing the virus and various environmental conditions such as temperature or humidity. Researchers at CDC and other institutions are designing standardized experiments to measure how long SARS Co-V can survive in situations that simulate natural environmental conditions.
Data on survival of SARS Co-V outside of the human body emphasize the importance of frequent handwashing with soap and water or use of alcohol-based hand rubs if hands are not visibly dirty. See the "Guideline for Hand Hygiene in Health-Care Settings" for more details on hand hygiene.
Source
www.cdc.gov
Your friendly ER tech is glad to answer these questions!
cheers
Also look at the cleaniliness of China.... it is actually very filth b/c people never wash their hands. This is something a few chinese nurses have talked to me about.
lol, how did these people become scientists in the first place?
Re: Sars Nonsense
| quote: |
| Originally posted by butterfly http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/...reut/index.html Yet Wickramasinghe and Wainwright believe the original outbreak in China is also significant because if the virus did fall to Earth it would most likely land east of the Himalayas, the weakest point in the stratosphere and easiest to break through. |
cnn doesnt know its ass from a hole in the wall BBC news is much better only news i read....
as sean micallef said: severe and acute mean pretty much the same thing, the only reason they added the severe, was because otherwise it would be known as ARS
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