I just got back from having coffee with someone in my small hometown.
Rumours are starting. Two patients are in isolation at the local hospital.
Suspected, possible, probable?
That’s the thing with rumours and SARS.
Currently unknown, unconfirmed.
You wait, you comfort, you listen.
Blood tests have to be sent far away. Symptoms have to be closely watched.
I could have been in contact with someone who may have been in secondary contact.
Would I know if I’ve been in contact with someone who has had primary contact?
And if I was, would I get sick?
Maybe, maybe not.
There isn’t a great deal one can do with lifes unknowns.
If/when SARS is confirmed in my community, I’ll change my personal behaviour patterns, and walk through my life a bit more carefully as millions of others are doing, and will be doing for awhile.
My friends are as knowledgeable as they can be and our roles are known.
We’ll have our jobs to do, we’re as prepared as we can be.
There is something not in any job description that is most important of all.
In 1832 in the town of York and the newly-named Toronto, Rev. John Strachan made twice weekly visits to the hospital during the cholera epidemic.
He wrote this to a friend.
‘Our duty, as you will understand, throws us clergy into the midst of such calamities as at no time more than contagious sickness do people require the consolation of religion.’
A current day hospital chaplin in the Toronto area wrote this to friends a few days ago.
I am a chaplain in a suburban hospital…. As I got to work today I donned my mask, got a squirt of disinfectant on my hands, answered questions re SARS contact and went to my office. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome is here… and our hospitals are in isolation… Patients are lonely and scared, as they have no visitors. Staff are apprehensive and trying to follow the rules as they constantly change.
In 1832 and in 2003 the clarion call went out from these two ‘first responders’.
Please pray.
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SARS Reality Check
“Approximately 85 dead — worldwide.
“Approimxately 150 cases in the United States.
“Zero dead in the United States.
“Three percent mortality rate.
“More Americans have died of the flu in the last 24 hours than have died of SARS worldwide — ever.
“When did we become such weenies?”
Hello Joshua:
Thank you for the link, I’ll add it to all the others.
You know Josh, for someone who has posted at the top of his blog how much of a gentleman he is, you’d think you’d show more compassion to someone who is a lot closer to SARS than you are.
Yes SARS is not something we should lose perspective on, but if you’re close to something it *is* something you focus on. As humans we can’t deal with everything relative to the proportion of people in the world it kills.
Since you wrote your comment, 15 more people have died. If you knew one of these people, SARS would not a statistic anymore.
Hi Rachel:
Thanks for your comment and your awareness of others realities…..
I commented at the blog Joshua Claybourn linked to in his comment above, he quoted someone else.
http://www.theagitator.com/archives/005457.php
The Spanish flu pandemic that killed 20 million around the world in 1918 had a 2.5% mortality rate. SARS has a 4% mortality rate. Right now there is no treatment for SARS.
It is not a question of being a “weenie” but SARS a major public health issue. See an interesting article in the Globe and Mail about the similiarities between SARS and the 1918 pandemic. http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20030405/FCFLUU/Comment/Idx
BTW, I live in Taiwan and travel extenisvely in China. And yes, I am very concerned.
Hi Scott:
Thank you for the G&M article. Stay safe.
Interesting to note that West Nile has double the mortality rate of SARS.