Re: Bird Flu scare on plane
Many of you may be surprised to know that the number of people who died of pneumonia of all forms (including SARS) in Hong Kong (which was seen as the epicentre) during the SARS hysteria was in fact not significantly higher than the number dying in a typical year - the only difference was that in a proportion of the cases the cause was labelled as SARS instead of non-specific atypical pneumonia. Moreover, the health authorities in HK have admitted that most (if not all) of the very small number of otherwise healthy, young people who died were actually killed at least in part by the overly aggressive (frankly, panicky) treatment that they were given. Dozens more people who, in retrospect, just needed fresh air, a bit of exercise and a good diet to help their immune systems deal with it have instead been left with chronic bone-wasting diseases and crippled for life by the steroids and other drugs meted out to them.
The whole SARS thing was essentially mass-hysteria in response to a very slightly elevated risk of illness due to a slightly different form of pneumonia. (Bear in mind that about 50% of "pneumonia" deaths (in HK at least) are "non-specific" - i.e. that the specific pathogen involved is never clearly identified.)
Last edited by christep; 5th Jan 2006 at 01:05.