Added: 12/13/2005 |
Severy acute respiratory syndrome: origins and causesSevery acute respiratory syndrome was first identified as an infectious disease by the Italian epidemiologist Carlo Urbani, one of the World Health Organization specialists. The first outbreak of the illness appeared in November 2002 in China. Medical experts were confused. The disease was unknown, but looked like pneumonia (inflammation of lungs, cough, high fever, shortness of breath, etc.). Since that time epidemiologists started a detailed investigation of the problem and made a conclusion that the world had faced a problem of atypical form of pneumonia.
Thus, the most common symptoms of severy acute respiratory syndrome are high fever (above 38 degrees C), severe headaches, rigors, chills, dry cough followed by breath shortness and difficulty. Be aware that some patients may experience diarrhea, but still the mentioned symptom is rather uncommon.
According to scientific researches, the disease is likely to affect people between the ages of 20 and 70. It's interesting to admit that 60% of severy acute respiratory syndrome victims are men. The common incubation period makes up from two to seven days. However, it may take two weeks for the disease symptoms to become visible.
What causes the severy acute respiratory syndrome? The answer is not that easy: thousands of hospitals all over the world have been trying to establish the causes since the disease was discovered. First, medical experts supposed that bacteria caused the disease, but this wasn't so because very intensive doses of antibiotics were not able to treat it. That's why clinicians suspected that the culprit was virus.
The doctors believed that was a new virus of Paramyxoviridae family including mumps and measles. However, further investigations showed that the cause of severy acute respiratory syndrome was sars coronavirus. It was new science. It's surprising but this kind of virus is often found in pigs, dogs, cats, chickens and other animals causing either diarrhea or different respiratory illnesses. Sometimes such virus can be found in humans.
Sars coronavirus has a complicated genetic structure; it is able to make RNA recombination. This virus is also known to borrow the DNA from the influenza (type C), which allows it to attach and affect host cells. Thus, sars coronavirus has a number of genetic weapons. That's why to determine the most appropriate vaccine for this virus the scientists require the knowledge of original host species.
So, is there an efficient treatment for severy acute respiratory syndrome? There's no exact answer. According to modern medical practice of Hong Kong and Canada specialists, many people are treated with different anti-viral medications and corticosteroids. Many people also receive a number of antibiotics for protecting themselves against bacterial pneumonia, which is possible to take place when the person has respiratory distress or a weak immune system.
But, unfortunately, this treatment is still considered to be the guesswork. Some people still die.
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