The Saudi government is finally taking action. First they were in denial mode, but something triggered a reversal of policy. Three cases doesn’t seem like much.  The WHO also stated that this strain isn’t easily transferred from one person to another. The question is, why the reversal in policy? If I had to guess, I would say that it is because of the millions of people making the hajj pilgrimage.
Tag Archives: Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabian SARS in Denmark
A family of 4 visited Saudi Arabia and flew back to Denmark, only to find out they have a deadly new strain of the SARS virus. Despite what the Saudi government says (see yesterday’s article), this is in fact dangerous, and it is in the same viral family as SARS, even though it also attacks the kidneys. A man who contracted the virus in Qatar was flown to the UK, where they diagnosed his condition as SARS.
That means I have to officially update the outbreak leader board:
1. Pertussis – “Whooping Coughâ€
2. Fatal rash caused by staph infection
3. “Flesh Eating Bacteriaâ€, also a staph infection
4. The Bubonic Plague
5. Ebola
6. Capnocytophaga – Woman lost hands and feet from dog saliva
7. Untreatable Gonorrhea
8. Kid died from a brain destroying ameoba, found in a lake
9. West Nile Virus
10. Hantavirus
11. Rabies
12. Typhus
13. Legionnaires Disease
14. New Jersey Superbug
15. Popcorn Lung
16. Saudi Arabian SARS
Saudi Arabian SARS
This story has all the makings of a conspiracy, but I do not quite believe it yet. Apparently in Saudi Arabia and Qatar there is a strain of SARS that has killed two people by respiratory failure and kidney failure. Now this is where it gets interesting: Remember that SARS is a flu like disease, killing people through respiratory failure. This one involves the Kidneys. Two completely unrelated body systems. This is not something seen in the previous SARS strains that ravaged through China a few years ago. I will keep looking into this before I draw any conclusions.