SARS linked to sex disease

Ew.
I don't quite get it though. Did most who got it have that disease, or is that how it starts and THEN they can spread SARS?
And there's an AIRBORNE version of that sex disease? NO WAY! ~~shiver~~
Gina

 

Chlamydia actually refers to a group of bacteria which share certain characteristics with different species of Chlamydia can cause different types of disease.

"Common" chlamydias include chlamydia trachomatis, which causes the genital infection most people think of when referring to chlamydia along with eye infections; chlamydia pneumoniae causes respiratory disease; and chlamydia psittaci causes psittacosis, a respitory illness that can range from mild illness to sepsis and pneumonia and is linked to certain exposures to birds. Transmission of these species can range from direct contact to airborne.

Personally I've not had time to pick up my latest copy of the New England Journal as I've been busy with my surgery rotation so I don't know if a particular species has been linked to SARS. I just wanted to warn that it wouldn't be the most prudent idea at this time to assume that this "chlamydia" is automatically the one that is commonly thought of a STD.

 

Thanks Madelyn for clarifying. If you look into this more please do let us know what you find!
Gina

 

We live near the CDC and the news report on t.v. said they're looking into this being a variant of a rodent or other animal disease that mutated like AIDS did.

HIV started in monkeys, I believe....

Diane

 

Scientists identify Sars virus
HONGKONG -- The World Health Organisation (WHO) said the Sars problem in Beijing is far worse than China has previously admitted and announced that the deadly virus, which killed at least nine people on Wednesday, is related to the common cold.

Top researchers from 13 different laboratories around the world announced that they had pinpointed the coronavirus as the cause for severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars).


'These colleagues have come to consensus agreement that we can now say that the disease called Sars first reported on March 12 is being caused by the coronavirus,' chief researcher Klaus Stohr told journalists in Geneva.

He said the confirmation would allow them to refine diagnostic tests and steer a clear path to fight the disease, although another member of the team said it would take 'months to years' to develop a full treatment.

The breakthrough was a rare ray of sunshine on an otherwise bleak day, with nine more deaths reported in Asia and the travel sector bracing for a grim Easter weekend.

One more victim in China brought the total confirmed global death toll from the virus to 161.

However, the real toll could be far higher after the WHO implicitly accused the Chinese authorities of covering up the epidemic in the capital Beijing, thereby casting doubt on all the official Chinese Sars figures.

Since being criticised for not coming clean about the virus when it first emerged in the southern province of Guangdong in November, China has repeatedly insisted that the epidemic was under control and belatedly started making public Sars statistics.

But the WHO said in Beijing alone there were now thought to be several hundred cases, compared to the official figure of 40, and that over 1,000 people were under observation in the capital's hospitals.

'I would guess the range would be between 100 and 200 probable cases in Beijing,' Dr Alan Schnur, a WHO infectious disease expert, told reporters after a WHO team was allowed access to two military hospitals.

The official number of Chinese cases is 1,455, but the WHO said the reporting and surveillance systems needed to be urgently improved and without more data they could not comment on the true situation nationwide.

Of particular concern are the more remote areas of Shanxi province and Inner Mongolia, where nearly 100 patients have been diagnosed with Sars and the medical facilities lag far behind the capital. -- AFP