SARS a fast mutator....

[Jon P. Inghram]

It's quite possible some herbs might have positive effects on the symptoms of SARS, but unless someone actually does experiments to verifiy it I don't believe they'd have an actual antiviral effect (not many substances do anyway, at least not without killing everything else too.)

[Chrono_Wanderer]

Few years back I was like you Doc, not sure about herbs. I had some fluid in my ears and won't go away for months using western medications. So my parents told me to go to a chinese doctor. The doctor I went to was a researcher in herbs in Baijing and migrated to Toronto. And after taking herbs for a few weeks, it pasted away. Personally I couldn't believe what happened, but, apparently it worked on me. I heard he's an expert in acupuncture. I heard there was a guy who couldn't walk for weeks (forgot reason), but after he had acupuncture, he was walking instantly...

Which leads me to agree with Wy... AFAIK there is no "standard herb formula" in chinese medcine. It depends on the "condition of your body", and then the doctor is supposed to use different combinations accordingly. And because of this, a good doctor is necessary, not one who knows a few standard combinations, but one who knows how to mix the combinations...

[Chrono_Wanderer]

oh yea.. btw i also doubt there's herbs that work on SARS, but i just wanna say herbs may work.

also, one more thing. it would be great if they research on chinese medicine scientificly. I think they are actually doing that... it would be great to have a combination of chinese and western medical technique. Of course, the surgury part in Western medical achievement is great.

edit: LOL... so off topic now

okay yea... now there's this cruise line company saying they won't accept clients from Toronto...

[Jon P. Inghram]

Here's a miracle cure for many disorders: Time. It's been known to cure the common cold, the flu, ear infections, and other diseases. All natural, unlikely to produce antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria, and when used properly has no known side effects besides a minor amount of aging of the patient. Can be combined with proper hydration, comfortable resting conditions, and decent sanitation to speed the results.

[Chrono_Wanderer]

I knew someone is going to say that time lol

That's pretty good timing close to 4 months of waiting... and what a coincidence! Go take chinese herbs and all off a sudden gone!

edit: Oh well... its just my experience anyways. No need to believe or anything. Just thought its interesting to point out

[Jon P. Inghram]

I'm all for research into herbal stuff, many important "real" drugs have came for similar backgrounds.

[The PIT]

How many believe it works and therefore get better ????

[Wombat]

Does it matter?

[Sasq]

Who remembers the M*A*S*H episode where Clinger was given 'salt' tablets as a placebo - he was told they we're anti-suffer the heat tablets.

And they worked?

[ZokesPro]

SARS is mutating!!!

SARS now attacking intestines!!!!

[Brian Ellis]

Tragic though it is and obviously difficult to control, it is now over 20 weeks since it was first reported, in which time (today's WHO figures), there have been 4,461 worldwide cases of infection, including suspected cases, and 251 deaths. This is really negligible compared with the number of people killed in road accidents in the same period, or of gunshot wounds (ignoring Iraq).

Of the 251 deaths, 211 were in China (incl. HK) and 14 in non-Asian countries (namely Canada). Even taking into account the total population of China, with relatively scant prophylaxis, this is less than 0.00002% of the population and we don't know how many of these victims had concomitant illnesses or were very aged.

Face masks are absolutely useless (except for the placebo effect) for viruses (sub-micron), which are so small as to go through the weave like a rat in a sewer.

I think that, while taking as many precautions as are reasonable, including travel restrictions, we should keep a sense of proportion. Even with those cases diagnosed/suspected, the death rate is only about 4%, which is small compared with many other endemic/pandemic diseases such as malaria and trypanosomia. (The E. African variant of the last-named causes 99% death within a few weeks and 100% disabilities amongst the few survivors. I have a friend who is amongst the 1% and he is only a shadow of his former self with possibly as much harm caused by the arsenic treatment as by the parasite. He caught it from an insect bite during a safari we were both on, in Kenya.)

[Paddy]

Face masks are absolutely useless (except for the placebo effect) for viruses (sub-micron), which are so small as to go through the weave like a rat in a sewer.

The only thing that face masks are good for is so that you can sneeze in theater! I dont like them....

[The PIT]

Latest rumours say the Sars is now killing more people but that could be dramtic journalism.

Wombat your attitude does make a differance on your recovery so yes it does matter.

[Paddy]

The only anti-viral agent in flu remidies is alcohol!

Who's up for a pint?

[The PIT]

Going to be negative here. Modern society doesn't allow for people being quarenteened. People would just ignore it. Like the foot and mouth outbreak where footpaths and farmland were out of bounds people still walked/worked on them. Disinfection trays were left on the side of the paths or left dry and there was no one around to enforce the rules. No wonder it lasted so long.

I wonder if this is where someone twaddled when they shouldn't even have been even twiddling and let something out of the lab they shouldn't have. Sometimes it is like reading The Stand.