Saturday, March 29, 2003

One last thing--if atypical pneumonia becomes an epidemic, is it still atypical?

posted by rgucci @ 6:46:00 AM

Friday, March 28, 2003

I know, I know. It's been a month and a half since my last entry. No, I haven't been sick with SARS either. I've just been too busy or just plain lazy all the time; sometimes both.


More on SARS...At last count, there have been 11 fatalities and 425 reported cases. The current temperature is 20 degrees Celisus with 82% humidity; I've got 2 Snickers bars in my gym bag and 9 empty Heinekens beside the sink. How is that pertinent? It's not. So are a lot of the numbers spewed out by the ever-tread-so-carefully HKSAR government. A few weeks ago there was a press conference and a whole lot of whoopee-doos about discovering the family of viruses (or viri for all those purists out there) responsible for atypical pneumonia, complete with enlarged pictures of the critters. That really put everyone at ease. Hey, now that we know what they look like, if we ever see one walking towards us we can always jay-walk to the other side of the street.


More and more people are wearing masks out in the streets (where it's least likely to do any good). It looks like a horribly uncreative Halloween party where everyone shows up in the same costume. Here's my own tip: whenever you're in a crowded place, just start this loud, hacking cough, the kind which shakes up your whole body. Within seconds, you would have cleared a 1 meter circle of empty space between you and other people as they madly rush away from you. I call it my own personal no-fly zone. It's a lot more effective than farting. It helps if you have a little dribble on your chin after you cough, too.


There have been a lot of reports insinuating that the disease originated from Guangdong and that there have been cases of atypical pneumonia, or something similar to it, since late last year. Historically, southern China has been linked to a lot of animal diseases that cross over to humans. Experts say that this is due to the farming society prevalent in southern China, where the day to day proximity between people and livestock creates a good breeding ground for mutant viruses.


Hmmmmm... people... livestock... proximity... the wheels in my perverted mind are turning... I'd better stop right there or one of these days I'm going to find snot in my soup.

posted by rgucci @ 11:25:00 PM