In the cold season, flu epidemics are rarely avoided. Residents of big cities have long been accustomed to this misfortune and treat it as inevitable: they get vaccinated, buy vitamins and antiviral drugs. Meanwhile, history knows several deadly flu epidemics: from 1918 to 1922, the infamous Spanish woman killed 20 million people around the world. Between 1957 and 1958, one million people died from the so-called Asian flu. The same number died during the Hong Kong flu epidemic in 1968-1969. However, in addition to the flu, other colds are also deadly.
World Panic
At the very beginning of the 21st century, the world was struck by the SARS epidemic. And for the most part, the cradle of another deadly infection was China - the most populous country. Then, in 2003, the panic caused by the epidemic spread around the world as quickly as the disease itself. Hundreds of thousands of residents of Beijing and other Chinese cities fled their homes in fear. In other countries, people lived as if on a powder keg, in anticipation of trouble and took every imaginable and inconceivable precaution. For example, in Brussels, authorities postponed one wedding out of town for fears that a Chinese bride might catch SARS while on a trip to her parents. The pen, which the newlyweds signed in the registration book, was immediately destroyed. And the receptionist violated the ritual by refusing to shake hands with the groom during the ceremony.
The case of the disruption of the flight became a manifestation of extreme concern. A Philippine airline liner halfway to Busan took a return course and landed in Manila. And all because one Korean citizen was suspected of a deadly syndrome. As it turned out, he actually suffered from a leg ailment.
The strictest quarantine was introduced in Hong Kong prisons. But along with their charges, the guards were behind bars without the right to leave the territory of the prison.
The alarm was sounded in Russia too. All citizens who flew from China were carefully checked, their temperature was measured right on board the plane, and all suspicious ones were immediately sent to the hospital. The State Sanitary and Epidemiological Supervision sent out a memo to the population, warning that the disease manifests itself with a temperature above 38 degrees, a headache, and a cough. The person is feeling unwell, muscle pain, chills. Diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting are sometimes observed. For prevention, the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Supervision recommended airing and wet cleaning of working and living quarters, adhering to the rules of personal hygiene, hardening, the use of fortifying agents and vitamins - in general, everything is as always …
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Where did this misfortune fall on our heads? Many Malaysians were convinced that the epidemic was Allah's punishment to the Chinese, who, unlike Muslims, eat pork, and also claim world domination. To confirm their words, the Malaysians cited the fact that pneumonia spread primarily in the Middle Kingdom, as well as among the Chinese living in Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam and Canada.
Scientists have put forward a variety of versions of the origin of the disease. And since SARS differs from typical pneumonia in that its causative agents can be not only bacteria, but also viruses, and fungi, and even the simplest, some assumptions and statements looked very strange.
"Comets continue to fall to Earth, and it is likely that some microbes from space could get to our planet and become the causative agents of SARS," said astrobiologist Chandra Wickramasingh from Cardiff University in Wales.
Scientists from the University of Hong Kong said wild cats were the main culprits in the worldwide spread of the deadly disease. More precisely, the gastronomic predilections of the Chinese, who eat the meat of the feline family.
The renowned Chinese microbiologist Wen Guoyong confirmed the information that the deadly virus is of animal origin and supported his Hong Kong colleagues, noting that in the south of China, wild cat meat is in high esteem, it was in this region that the first foci of infection were recorded. The infection adapted to the human body and began its deadly march, first across Asia, and then around the world.
Artificially created?
"The causative agent of SARS could be created artificially or simply" escape "from the test tubes of scientists, - said Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences Sergei Kolesnikov. - As it happened in 1957 in Sverdlovsk, when the rats living in the building where anthrax research was carried out spread the infection throughout the city. Moreover, it was in their bodies that the causative agent of the ulcer received that special harmfulness that cannot be created artificially. Even a weakened virus used to create a vaccine can go berserk in animals. " “Don't fool people with your head. If the virus "escaped", confess and give a vaccine, which is always prepared in parallel with the development of bacteriological weapons, "Kolesnikov urges.
One of Europe's leading experts on global epidemics, Patrick Dixon, is confident that SARS could potentially be even more dangerous than the AIDS virus. In 2003, he wrote: “It is worth remembering that about 80 million people have been infected with AIDS over the past 15-20 years. It spreads slowly, so we can track its development and plan an action program. Now we do not have that much time, and if the rate of spread of the virus continues, then in 60 years a billion people will be infected with SARS.”
Only a few years have passed, and in December 2017, in the Tula, Vladimir, Yaroslavl regions and the Amur region, several schools were quarantined, and in Veliky Novgorod all schools stopped classes. The cause was SARS …
Name of death
Once the virus has appeared, it needs to be given a name. American doctors propose to name the SARS virus in honor of the Italian doctor who was one of the first to encounter this disease.
Carlo Urbani treated an American businessman in Vietnam. The businessman died a few days later. Even then, Urbani realized that he was dealing with a more than strange case, and warned his colleagues about the danger of the rapid spread of the infection.
Soon, symptoms of SARS were found in Urbani himself, three days later the doctor died. Urbani, who heads the Italian chapter of Médecins Sans Frontières, has done much to stop the spread of the virus among medical staff and has saved many people, the World Health Organization said in a statement.
“However, the idea to name the virus after Urbani has many opponents. In their opinion, viruses should be named after scientists who discover the causes of the disease, rather than die from it.
We strengthen the immune system
With good immunity, atypical pneumonia is not terrible for a person. If the immune system is weakened, the course of the disease deteriorates dramatically, and respiratory distress syndrome develops. Against the background of increasing acute respiratory failure, a lethal outcome is possible.
The main difficulty of therapy lies in the fact that no effective drugs have been found to date against some viruses - the causative agents of atypical pneumonia.
Mushrooms and even the simplest
Today we know that bacteria, viruses, fungi, and even protozoa can be the causative agents of SARS. And since in the 20th century the known pathogens of SARS (Mycoplasma, Chlamydia and Legionella) were considered as viruses, SARS was given the name - non-bacterial. But here's a strange thing: today, even despite the fact that some atypical pathogens are recognized as bacteria, they all carry a number of atypical signs: for example, mycoplasma, for some unknown reason, lacks a cell wall, and chlamydia has intracellular parasitism. All this makes them insensitive to some antibiotics. A person is being treated, treated, but zero sense.
Magazine: All the riddles of the world №24. Author: Tatiana Petina