Beste mensen,

Hieronder heb ik een stukje geplaatst van de site van de WHO. Het geeft mijns insziens perfect aan waarom SARS dus wel degelijk een gevaar voor de volksgezondheid is. Lijkt me voor een ieder die geinteresseerd is verplichte kost. Wel is het in het Engels, maar dat zal voor de gmeiddelde wereldreiziger geen probleem zijn, lijkt me.

Mijn conclusie is dat ook al is het risico voor een individuele reiziger om SARS op te lopen (laat staan er aan te overlijden) klein, het wel van het grootste belang is om te zorgen dat deze nieuwe ziekte niet endemisch (=wereldwijde permanent aanwezig) wordt. Voorzichtigheid is dus geboden voor reizgers, dus houd de aanwijzingen van de WHO goed in de gaten.

Groet,

Alex

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SARS: a particularly serious threat to international health

Although the last decades of the previous century witnessed the emergence

of several new diseases, SARS needs to be regarded as a particularly

serious threat for several reasons. If the SARS virus maintains its present

pathogenicity and transmissibility, SARS could become the first severe new

disease of the 21st century with global epidemic potential. As such, its

clinical and epidemiological features, though poorly understood, give cause

for particular alarm. With the notable exception of AIDS, most new diseases

that emerged during the last 2 decades of the previous century or

established endemicity in new geographical areas have features that limit

their capacity to pose a major threat to international public health. Many

(avian influenza, Nipah virus, Hendra virus, Hanta virus) failed to

establish efficient human-to-human transmission. Others (_Escherichia coli_

O157:H7, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) depend on food as a vehicle of

transmission. Diseases such as West Nile Fever and Rift Valley Fever that

have spread to new geographical areas require a vector as part of the

transmission cycle and are associated with low mortality, often in

high-risk groups, such as the elderly, the immunocompromised, or persons

with co-morbidity. Still others (_Neisseria meningitidis_ W135, and the

Ebola, Marburg, and Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fevers) have strong

geographical foci. Although outbreaks of Ebola haemorrhagic fever have been

associated with case-fatality rates in the range of 53 percent (Uganda) to

88 percent (Democratic Republic of the Congo), person-to-person

transmission requires close physical exposure to infected blood and other

bodily fluids. Moreover, patients suffering from this disease during the

period of high infectivity are visibly very ill and too unwell to travel.

In contrast, SARS is emerging in ways that suggest great potential for

rapid international spread under the favourable conditions created by a

highly mobile, closely interconnected world. Anecdotal data indicate an

incubation period of 2 to 10 days (average 2 to 7 days), allowing the

infectious agent to be transported, unsuspected and undetected, in a

symptomless air traveller from one city in the world to any other city

having an international airport. Person-to-person transmission through

close contact with respiratory secretions has been demonstrated. The

initial symptoms are non-specific and common. The concentration of cases in

previously healthy hospital staff and the proportion of patients requiring

intensive care are particularly alarming. This “21st century” disease could

have other consequences as well. Should SARS continue to spread, the global

economic consequences – already estimated at around USD 30 billion –

could be great in a closely interconnected and interdependent world.