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Soar Without SARS By Chhandita Chakravarty, TheWorldJournal.com 
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PRINT VERSION On June 5th 2003, WHO officials in China declared that the SARS epidemic has passed its worst phase but a threat of a resurgence could not ruled out. Mainland China, where SARS first raised its ugly head did not report any new case. This declaration may have finally put the panic over severe acute respiratory syndrome to rest. The WHO officials claimed that this fact proved that SARS can be contained despite the fact that scientists are looking for some vaccine or cure or even diagnostic test. The health officials credited China for this success and said that the anti-SARS measures, including early detection and isolation, tracing possible contacts and informing and educating the public about the virus adopted by the Chinese officials went a long way in controlling this epidemic. But the officials warned against any premature celebration and cited the example of Ontario, Toronto where the disease re-emerged after an initial outbreak subsided. 'This was 10 days back. Now it's safe to say that the world has seen the worst of this disease. Travel advisories has been lifted against the affected countries and life is finally moving beyond surgical masks and isolation units for the populace. Tourism is looking up in South East Asia and the struggling economy can finally get back to its feet. Isn't it ironic how a little virus can bring life in dozen of countries to a halt? Even with the declaration of its control, SARS has managed to raise several questions. The most urgent questions that are haunting the laymen are what was this disease? What if it reemerges? What precautions should we take? And generally, why have we, with all our resources and knowledge not been able to live without the fear of all the unknown disease lurking in various corners of the world? Unfortunately, the answers are not clear. SARS managed to spread panic the world over not because of its fatality rate, which is a mere 4% (not much if compared with some other diseases). The real problem with SARS is the mystery associated with it. It's human nature to be scared of the unknown. The fact that there is no known cure only worsened the situation. The scientists will no doubt find a cure for it and if it strikes the next time we will be better prepared. But this is definitely not the end of unknown viruses hitting humanity. The more we develop our medicinal system the more we seem to be susceptible to newer disease. The reality is that most of these diseases are not new or unknown. Most of them are mutated forms of already existing viruses. These viruses over time develop immunity to our medicines and strike back with vigor. And when they do the all that the medical community can do is to look for a 'new' cure for 'an old disease'. SARS scare may have been put to rest (at least for now), but the threat of SARS and other diseases remain. Ultimately it's the question of survival-there's or ours! It may finally turn out that the most dangerous threat humanity faces is not from nuclear weapons, flying asteroids or unidentified flying objects, but from some of the smallest of all living beings-Viruses. But there's still life after SARS to be celebrated. After all it's a victory over an enemy. Lets say cheers to many such victories. One day we will be finally in a position to 'Soar without SARS'. © July 16, 2003 |
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