The Center for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday disclosed a new method which could determine whether people are infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) within six days through throat specimen examination and genetic coding of the virus.
CDC Director Chen Tsay-jinn (
If the examination of the throat samples showed positive results of coronavirus, the test will proceed to the stage of genetic coding to determine whether the coronavirus is mutated or not. The whole process could take as long as six days to complete.
Chen also said that the causative virus of SARS could be a kind of mutated coronavirus derived from two parasite viruses from cattle, pigs and poultry as the symptoms of Taiwanese patients indicated possible links with those viruses.
He said the throat specimens extracted from the two Taiwanese SARS patients have been determined by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USCDC) to show the existence of a kind of mutated coronavirus.
"It [the mutated coronavirus] might be from the kind of virus in cattle and pigs which lead to enterogastritis, and another virus in poultry, which leads to respiratory illness symptoms.
"In the case of Taiwan, eight out of the nine of SARS patients with full symptoms records showed symptoms of diarrhea, and 90 percent of all of our patients have signs of coughing. Therefore, it is a highly possible that we could infer the new mutated virus is the combination of such two viruses from these animals," Chen said.
Added to the report from the USCDC, Chen said the genetic coding of the coronavirus found in SARS patients from around the world all showed signs of mutation, which in Taiwan is about 30 to 40 percent, while in US, it is between 50 to 60 percent.
Though it is highly hypothetical that the coronavirus has mutated from cattle and poultry, Chen called on the public not to worry about having contacts with these animals, as the mutation is not likely to happen easily.
Coronavirus is mostly spread through the air, but since the virus causes diarrhea, Chen said the CDC will not rule out the possibility that the infection can be spread through both the air and the excrement of the animals and infected patients.
He also said that based on such findings and blood samples from recovered patients who have developed anti-bodies to the disease, the center is searching for a cure -- maybe in the form of a vaccine to curb the spread of the disease.
Meanwhile, Chen said though SARS is a highly infectious epidemic, the virus is not as strong as the one that causes AIDS.
According to the CDC, 79 suspected cases of SARS have been reported nationwide as of yesterday. Thirteen are "probable cases" while 12 are suspected SARS cases.
Twenty-four cases have been cleared of having SARS. A total of 832 people have been quarantined nationwide to prevent people suspected of having SARS from leaving their homes.
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