Member-only story
SARS Lessons Not Learned
The first wave of the SARS epidemic was traced back to a fishseller from Guangzhou province ( 1000 km from Wuhan) in November 2002. When he fell ill, he infected over 100 health workers and began the worldwide spread of the SARS virus causing many casualties. The second victim was a chef from Heyuan who worked in a restaurant in Shenzhen. He prepared wild game meat. His family and seven healthcare workers who were in contact got infected. SARS virus was discovered in palm civets and raccoon dogs from wild-animal markets in the Guangdong Province of China. Eight thousand people were affected in SARS epidemics. During the outbreak in 2003, 8,096 cases (774 deaths) had occurred in over 30 countries on five continents.
In 2004, a waitress served palm civets meat at a restaurant in Guangzhou, China. Six palm civets were kept in cages at the same restaurant; all six were positive for SARS. The second wave of human infections occurred although it was contained quickly. In the following years, the antibodies to SARS were detected in 40% for…
