Monday, December 24, 2012

Coronaviruses: Is the New Epidemic Here?

By Terrance Franklin


In case you had fun during the recent SARS outbreak, I have some very nice news for you. It appears as if there is a new coronavirus in the city and the World Health Organization has been alerting doctors world-wide to remain on high alert. According to this press release by the global alert and response squad at the WHO, six total cases causing two demises have actually been declared up to now, however the implication of the release is that there can be many more around.

A Perfect Storm

In today's widely connected world, everyone is venturing around the globe both to and from sites like Saudi Arabia. It's not news, however the time could be surprising to a few. This outbreak comes on the heels of Thanksgiving, when a lot of Americans who were staying abroad could be returning back home for the vacations. Airports all over the world passing through the middle east and close by areas may be totally exposing and bringing people straight to the United States.

Aside from that, the hajj, an annual pilgrimage that is made to Mecca by 2-3 million Muslims annually, is about to begin. People will probably be flying from all over the world directly to the place of the outbreak and returning to their home countries after that. This is a terrifying thought.

Coronaviruses 101

Coronaviruses are a type of disease related to the normal cold. They have an effect on the respiratory systems as well as upper gastrointestinal system with symptoms similar to pneumonia. Probably, the most devastating coronavirus in the past was the SARS virus, which afflicted 8000 people and killed eight hundred, a mortality rate of 10%. They have a specifically terrible behavior of jumping from species to species allowing them to incubate undetected amongst livestock as well as in the wild before moving to people.

Have you been well prepared?

Based on your current amount of preparation there are many choices regarding emergency supplies.

When the masks start coming out, the most effective plan is to avoid the open public as much as possible. A few routines like work can not be prevented, however taking the usual visits to the grocery store or market are necessary. If you are preparing your food supplies, it could be a good opportunity to turn them over. Consider this as a possibility to consume some of your older food reserves - it's going to prevent them from getting wasted if they go bad and will certainly enable you to experience what an actual devastation will be like!

While Doomsday Preppers like Donna Nash might be into the notion of building obstacles to get used to life amongst potentially infected people, there's no ideal match. Even the extremely touted n95 face mask is based on a 95% level of efficacy. So statistically, if you go within 1m of twenty afflicted people, germs could get through once.

Research has been done on the efficacy of n95 face masks and has reached the result that they are an imperfect remedy at best. The key recommendation regarding the one mentioned is that the recommended 1m radius has to be widened, and that eye safety needs to be incorporated.




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