FYI

-----Original Message-----
-------------------------------------------------------------~->

http://www.enn.com/news/2003-03-28/s_3572.asp

Is south China a breeding ground for killer bugs?

28 March 2003

By John Ruwitch, Reuters

BEIJING  The man appeared to have a common cold so doctors were not
alarmed at first.

After him, others emerged in the south China city of Foshan with similar
symptoms: dry cough, high fever, chills. But it was November; cold and flu
season was just starting.

"At first, we weren't sure if this was atypical pneumonia," said a health
official in the city of 3.3 million people, 135 km (85 miles) northwest of
Hong Kong.

Alarm bells started going off after several patients and attending doctors
and nurses started coming down with the disease.

"After several patients showed similar symptoms, we began to look for the
first case," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Four months later, 34 people in China are dead from atypical pneumonia and
about 800 infected.

Who was the man with the first case? Health workers and officials in the
southern province of Guangdong know but will not say publicly.

He is a crucial piece of the puzzle doctors are putting together to get at
the origins of the disease, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS),
which has been creeping around the world, passed on in elevators,
airplanes, hotels, and offices.

The killer illness has raised questions about whether southern China and
neighboring Southeast Asia are breeding grounds for nasty new diseases.

Troubling prior examples spring to mind. In 1957-58, the so-called "Asian
Flu" killed an estimated 1 million people worldwide. In 1968-69, the "Hong
Kong Flu" claimed another million lives.

BUG HEAVEN

The theory is simple. In Guangdong, for example, about 90 million people,
or 1.5 times the population of Britain, live in close proximity to
livestock, particularly ducks, creating an ideal place for the bugs that
cause disease to thrive and mutate.

For influenza it may be true, experts say.

"Southeast Asia is an incubating ground, if you like, for new pandemic
strains of flu," said John MacKenzie, a virologist and the leader of a
five-member World Health Organisation (WHO) team visiting China to
investigate the atypical pneumonia outbreak.

Human and avian strains of viruses can recombine or exchange genes, he
said. The new virus can be incubated in livestock, like ducks and pigs,
and make their way back into humans living nearby.

But Southeast Asia, home to hundreds of millions of people, is far from
the only place where virulent new strains emerge.

"I think it's wrong to say that it's a kind of crucible of new and
emerging diseases," said WHO spokesman Chris Powell.

A flu that emerged in Spain killed about 26 million people, or 1.2 percent
of the world's population, in 1918-19. And several other deadly diseases,
including Ebola and West Nile Fever, are thought to have originated in
Africa.

And SARS is different from the flu.

"Influenza is very, very contagious," said MacKenzie, a flu expert at
Australia's University of Queensland. "But SARS is nothing like that. It's
much harder to spread," he said. "It's probably much more nasal
secretions. You need to have close contact."

Source: Reuters

 * * *

Copyright  2003 Environmental News Network Inc.

==========
 ** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
in receiving the included information for research and educational
purposes. **



To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[log in to unmask]

To subscribe to this group, send an email to:
[log in to unmask]

To manage your settings, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/envecolnews/

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/


/--------------------------------------------------------------------\
|                    CIESIN General Information                      |
| * Send postings and replies to           [log in to unmask] |
| * Send commands (e.g. unsubscribe)   [log in to unmask] |
\--------------------------------------------------------------------/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~