I wouldn't change travel plans now, but if a major epidemic starts, things will look very different to all of us. A 4% death rate is huge, and anyone who has kids in school knows how colds and other virus spread. Let's hope the government can keep a lid on it. It is no joke.<BR><BR>SARS was ruled out in the illnesses on the plane in San Jose CA.

As you can see just from the handful of posts above, unsubstantiated rumors are spreading much faster than the virus itself. I strongly urge people to rely only on the WHO or CDC websites (or other governmental health organization websites) for the most accurate, up-to-date information. <BR><BR>Andrea in Shanghai

Hi Andrea, I was wondering about you in Shanghai, glad you are right on top of things.

<BR><BR>and watch out for coughing monkeys!

There were WHO statistics in my newspaper to-day. Looks like you are in far more danger at home than in Europe. I�ll start from east:<BR><BR>Australia: 1 sick, 0 dead<BR>Hongkong: 685 sick, 16 dead<BR>Taiwan: 13 sick, 0 dead<BR>Vietnam: 58 sick, 4 dead<BR>Singapore: 92 sick, 3 dead<BR>China: 1190 sick, 46 dead<BR><BR>Then Europe:<BR><BR>Romania: 3 sick, 0 dead<BR>Italy: 3 sick, 0 dead<BR>Switzerland: 3 sick, 0 dead<BR>Germany: 5 sick, 0 dead<BR>France: 1 sick, 0 dead<BR>Belgium: 1 sick, 0 dead<BR>UK: 3 sick, 0 dead<BR>Ireland: 2 sick, 0 dead<BR><BR>Then across the Atlantic:<BR><BR>Canada: 53 sick, 6 dead<BR>USA: 69 sick, 0 dead<BR><BR>

I think you have the same kind of censorship in your media as about the Irak war. Have a look at Yahoo Canada.<BR>You who are concerned about losing your purse in Europe think that a mortality of about 4% is not high. What would happen if the virus reached Irak?<BR>(By the way the AA Airline which was in quaratine came from Tokyo and flew to Vancouver.)

Looks like I forgot the most tourism dependent country, Thailand.<BR><BR>Thailand: 6 sick, 2 dead<BR><BR>The newspaper also says that all infected people have got the desease in China or South East Asia. And you have to be in close contact to get infected. The spreading is slowed down because a sick person does not spread the desease before he himself has symptoms.

I seem to always get sick after long international flights. I've always thought about wearing a face mask, but figured the attention and odd reactions weren't worth it. Now I guess I'll blend right in!

Of the people who died in Toronto all except one were elderly and had pre-existing serious medical conditions like heart disease or diabetes. The one man in his 40s who died had diabetes and had had LONG exposure to the first person to die. It is contagious but only to those with close contact to the affected. So far of the people quarantined because they were in the vicinity of people who developed SARS, only those in VERY CLOSE contact have developed the disease. I regularly use public transit in Toronto and the only extra precaution I am taking is more frequent hand washing. I would agree with other posters who point out that you are more likely to be killed in a car accident than to get SARS much less to die of it. I agree that a mortality rate of 4% is not all that low BUT first you have to GET the disease. Not everyone in casual contact with SARS patients is getting the disease.

I'm worried about SARS but, frankly, there's not a thing I or you, teacherlady, or anyone else here can really do about it. It's kind of up to CDC and WHO and Lady Fortune, but the proportion of deaths to people who contract the disease -- even though it's high compared to many other diseases -- is still not nearly high enough to call it a fatal disease. <BR><BR>Its biggest threat has to do with the demands put on particular hospitals to give large numbers of people adequate intensive care, if there's a concentrated outbreak somewhere. In the meantime, I'm refusing to worry about it until I have reason to think I'm taking a larger risk than usual -- for example, if I'm on a flight from Vancouver that originated in Hong Kong, I'll have to weigh my fears of getting a long-shot disease versus my fears of looking like a doofus in a surgical mask!