A noteworthy epidemic has arisen in the Middle East recently
causing two people within the Arabian Peninsula to become very ill. This
infectious disease belongs to the SARS family however it has yet to be
discovered as to what causes it. One person who was infected is in critical
condition and the other has died, one may wonder if this may turn out to be a
pandemic worldwide. Society knows that the infectious disease, SARS has spread
throughout the world and resulted in approximately 800 million fatalities,
however there’s the possibility of more deaths. The unknown Middle Eastern
virus could very well be the next SARS, studies indicate to be inclusive at
this point. Debora MacKenzie clarifies the threats and the potential harms it
may have against civilization and advocates solution precautions. The European
Union set a project, in response to SARS, and ultimately discovered the
relation to the unknown virus. This
project solely sought out to analyze and determine whether a mutagen virus was on
its way before it broke out throughout the world. This system formed by, Ab
Osterhaus, of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, stated "if
we had known about SARS when it had only infected a few people, we might have
stopped it then” (Osterhaus). With that in mind, Osterhaus and the Erasmus
Medical Center tested samples of two men who experienced symptoms, common to
the new virus, and preliminary sequencing suggested that both men were infected
with the same new virus. Osterhaus clarifies that the sequence indicates that
the new virus is not very closely related to SARS however it is from the same
subfamily of ‘coronaviruses’ that are commonly found in bats.
* Information obtained at www.newscientist.com
* Pictures obtained at www.newscientist.com & www.firstpost.com
Figure 8.1
Figure 8.2
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