Doctor who
identified
SARS
becomes its
victim
SARS is like flu. It is also a
virus but it is much more
dangerous than flu. It has
now killed hundreds of people
in different parts of the world.
It has also infected thousands
of other people. Recently the
doctor who first identified
SARS, Dr Carlo Urbani, died
from SARS. Dr Urbani worked
for the World Health
Organisation in Vietnam. An
American businessman was
taken to hospital in Hanoi, the
capital of Vietnam, with a
strange illness. Dr Urbani was
the first person in the world to
notice that this was a new
disease. He called it SARS,
which means ‘severe acute
respiratory syndrome’.
The SARS virus can move
very quickly. People who
suffer from SARS have a high
temperature, a cough and
difficulty in breathing. Dr
Urbani’s colleague Pascale
Brudon said: "Carlo was the
first person to see that this
was something strange.
When people became very
worried in the hospital, he
was there every day,
collecting samples, talking to
the staff and trying to control
the infection."
In a statement, the World
Health Organisation praised
Dr Urbani, an expert in
infectious diseases. "Because
of Dr Urbani’s work with
SARS, we were able to
identify and isolate many new
cases before they infected
hospital workers," they said in
the statement.
The virus is still spreading
very quickly across East Asia.
Most of the cases are in
China, Hong Kong, Singapore
and Vietnam.
Hong Kong has closed
schools for a million students
for 10 days, but some doctors
say they should be closed for
a month. Normal daily life has
changed completely for the
people of Hong Kong. They
do not go to restaurants or
theatres and they do not take
taxis. They wear special face
masks and even chemical
protection suits when they go
out.
The Chinese government now
publishes a daily report on the
spread of the disease, but
some experts in Hong Kong
say the Chinese government
did not provide enough
information about SARS and
how quickly the disease can
spread.
When the virus reached Hong
Kong, it infected a lot of
hospital workers. A doctor
from Guandong province in
China first brought SARS to
Hong Kong in February.
The Guardian Weekly
