Essay
Gallery
SARS. A New Killer Disease
Miwa Sasaki
In this essay I present my research on SARS. I am interested in SARS because since many people are dying of SARS all over the world, it is a very serious problem for us. I amgoing to cover three main points. I want to explore the number of people who suffer from SARS, the way to prevent SARS from spreading out, and the comparison and contrast between SARS and Spanish Flu. First I will show you the number of people who are probably infected with SARS, the number of people who died of SARS, and the growth of those numbers, from April 24 to May 10, then I will cover some examples of the countermeasures to SARS and finally I will demonstrate the information about Spanish Flu, the comparison with SARS, and the contrast with SARS.
In any study of SARS, it is important to know the background details. According toBRENNAN (2003), the first person who died from SARS was living in Guangdong province, China. The date of the death was January 1, 2003. Now it is spread out all over the world, and there is no vaccine to cure SARS (NEWSMAX, 2003).
What are the causes of SARS? I think SARS is caused by a new species of corona-virus which was brought among people by an animal called a Masked Palm Civet (WHO, 2003). The effects are that many people are dying even at this moment, and so many people are becoming unwilling to travel abroad.
How many people suffer from SARS? The cumulative number of cases was 7,296, andthe number of deaths was 526 on May 10 (WHO, 2003). I started to research the numbers onApril 24, and the cumulative number of cases was 4,439, and the number of deaths was 263 at that time according to the WHO (2003). Now you'll see that the number of deaths has doubled within 16 days. Also, the number is increasing, especially in China. I think this is terrible. If we cannot find an effective treatment against SARS, the number of people who die from SARS might grow bigger than the number of people who died in the Iraq War (WHO, May 10, 2003).
I have shown the number of people who suffer from SARS. Next I will cover the ways to prevent SARS from spreading out. According to Hong Kong's Department of Health (May 5, 2003), there are several countermeasures to SARS. They are to wash hands immediately after sneezing, coughing or using the toilet, to use liquid soap to wash hands, to dry hands with a paper towel, not to share eating utensils, to shower and wash hair daily, to avoid visiting crowded places with poor ventilation, and to wear a mask. There are some other measures, but none of these are different from the methods we use to prevent an ordinary flu from spreading out, therefore there is no special way to prevent SARS. All we need to do, and can do, is to keep ourselves clean all the time and eat fully nutritional food.
I have covered how to prevent SARS from spreading out, now I will demonstrate the comparison and contrast between SARS and Spanish Flu. First of all, I'd like to explain what Spanish Flu is. Spanish Flu was discovered in U.S.A. It dramatically spread all over the world, and killed between 20 million and 40 million people through 1918 to 1919. Spanish Flu is similar to SARS in terms of how they spread out and the effects. In both cases the route of infection is by air, and the symptoms are high fever, greater than 38ºC or 100.4ºF, combined with a dry cough, shortness of breath of breathing difficulty. However, Spanish Flu is different from SARS in terms of the number of deaths. As I've shown you, Spanish Flu had killed 20 million to 40 million people while SARS has killed 526 people. I think the number of people who die from SARS won't grow as rapidly as those of Spanish Flu, because we have better information and medical systems now. However, that won't change the fact that Spanish Flu and SARS are both tragic matters for people living all over the world, according to NewsMax.com (April 8, 2003).
In brief I have shown that over 7,000 people are suffering from SARS including 526 deaths, and that we should keep ourselves clean and eat well. Also, I have shown that there once was an epidemic of Spanish Flu, which had very similar symptoms to SARS, and killed 20 million to 40 million people in one year. The situation might improve if a vaccine to cure SARS was made. However the situation might deteriorate if the vaccine wasn't made for several years. I think scientists in the U.S.A. will make a vaccine because they have a lot of money and the most up-to-date methods to study SARS.
References:
Author not named (2003) WHO.int
Author not named (2003) Department of Health.hk
Brennan, P. (2003) NewsMax.com
