Renata Simone: Thanks for having me.

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Vienna, Va.: Can you tell us how medical staff can distinguish SARS from a common cold, the flu or allergies?

Renata Simone : The WHO has been very good about telling people if you do or don't have SARS. I think it is a bit out of my expertise, but this link.

The WHO have been incredibly organized in how they have attacked this.

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Tuscaloosa, Ala.: How dangerous is it for the regular traveler from the United States who visits Hong Kong once per year to teach a course in a small college?

Renata Simone : Renata Simone: First of all we are not doctors, but what we know from talking to doctors is that SARS if very difficult to acquire. You have to have direct contact with someone who is sick or touch something with the virus on it. The best thing you can do is wash your hands.

Raney Aronson: One thing we did when were sending Renata and the Cameraperson is we talked to the CDC about how to help not get SARS. There are some great things you can follow - don't go into infected areas, washing hands, etc. Right now going to Hong Kong is generally safe if you follow the CDC travel guidelines. It is essential that you look at the website.

Renata Simone: For example, when we were planning this shoot we decided not to go to Prince William Hospital. We could have, and you could say that to completely cover the story, but we have to use common sense.

Raney Aronson: One thing we found out is how good the CDC and WHO are coordinating travel guidelines. If you use them both as tools you can learn everything you need to know about traveling in these place.

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New York, N.Y.: Could you explain your ending comment about 'waiting for the next virus coming from China'? What do you mean by that?

Renata Simone : SARS was the latest in a series of viral outbreaks that have come from that region in China. It is an area that is particularly fertile for the emergence of new viruses due to a unique combination of factors. There is dense population where people live close together, the custom is that they consume exotic animals that are sold live in open markets and it is a sub tropical climate. Since it never freezes viruses have a chance to flourish and there is no natural dieback. Other diseases that have come out of there include the Swine Flu and the 1968 global epidemic of fatal flu.

While I was there I spoke to a scientist named Malik Peiris, professor in the Microbiology Dept. at the University of Hong Kong, he was the first to identify the coronavirus. He said to me that SARS is really a warning, a kind of dress rehearsal because it is very hard to transmit SARS. Flu and the common cold are much more easily transmitted than SARS. His quote was that the next influence of pandemic will make SARS look like a picnic.

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Somewhere, USA: Are Dr. Ho's treatments widely used and approved by the Chinese government in treating patients across the country? Also, have medical staff in Toronto and other countries coordinate and work with him to create an antibiotic or vaccine for the virus?

Renata Simone & Raney Aronson: Renata Simone: No, this preparation are on the very earliest stages of testing. They are starting to test them in rhesus monkey in Beijing. The Chinese scientists will be responsible for the next step. The timetable of those tests have not been determined yet.

Raney Aronson: The process of science takes a long time. The story last night just shows the first stage. Now it goes through animal and human trials -- if it still seems like it is working.

Renata Simone: Dr. Ho's lab is working on a vaccine for SARS and similarly that is in the experimental stage in the laboratory. In the next few weeks that will move into animal trials. Antibiotics are very affective in bacterial illness, but since SARS is caused by a virus it will not help.

Raney Aronson: That is what has been stumping scientists… there is no known treatment for SARS at this point.

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Baltimore, Md.: As a physician the biggest problem we have is taking care of people who think they have SARS, what are they doing in China to combat the fear of SARS

Renata Simone & Raney Aronson: Information is the cure for fear.

The more information, no matter where one is, the less hysteria over it.

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Rosslyn, Va.: Can you paint a picture of what the future will bring with SARS? Will there be sporadic outbreaks like ebola, or pandemics like the HK flu, or can this be brought to a stop? Will Toronto, Hong Kong, Beijing, Taipei forever be localized hotspots with more cities being added to the list every year?

Renata Simone & Raney Aronson: I think we can say that it is too early to tell, which is why scientists are pursuing both a treatment and a vaccine.

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Mt. Lebanon, Pa.: What's the population density of Hong Kong and compare it to other major Chinese cities: Beijing, Taipei, Shanghai, Nanking. How come these other major population centers haven't experienced the onslaught from SARS to the same degree as Hong Kong? Or in other words, what's culturally-medically-societally-environmentally so "special" about Hong Kong? Someone must be doing something right and conversely, someone must be doing something wrong. Thanks much.

Renata Simone & Raney Aronson: It is the geography and the relationship between the rest of the world between in trade and travel. We talked earlier about how Guangdong province being a petri dish of sorts. It has a river that runs down the middle of it in a southeasterly direction, and where it opens into the sea is exactly where Hong Kong is located. That area is the largest shipping port in the world. Those are the two factors than the other cities you ask about. Guangdong is a place where people live close together, live animals are sold and butchered in markets, there is a culinary tradition 1000 years old of eating wild and exotic animals, and the subtropical climate allows viruses to grow and thrive without a freezing temperature to kill them. So new viruses can jump from animals to people and then because of the intense relationship with the outside world through trade and travel those viruses spread.

With SARS scientists have figured out that the virus originated in this province of China and then at least through one traveler who came across the border of Guangdong and Hong Kong infected 12 individuals in a hotel where he was staying and then those individuals traveled to other parts of the world. That is just one incidents where we can track the infection to the province. There may have been others. This is what scientists are working out right now.

It is not so much what the cities did as it is the relationship to the place and where the virus originated.

Hong Kong was the gateway for the virus.

Everything we have just said is in the piece "Chasing the Virus" and by Monday will be streaming online.

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Virginia: When do you think that Hong Kong and China will ever be "normal" without any case of SARS? Will SARS be part of daily life for the Chinese and Canadians?

Renata Simone & Raney Aronson: Too early to tell. We are just starting to get a handle on the disease.

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New Paltz N.Y.: Is the number of SARS cases expected to increase when the cold weather returns in the fall-winter?

Renata Simone & Raney Aronson: No, if anything it will go down, but they really don't know. Viruses are very good at mutating.

It is very early in our knowledge in terms of SARS so it is hard to give reliable answers to these questions.

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Vienna, Va.: Renata,
What was left out of the program or questions that time didn't permit to be answered about the spread of SARS? Are there any other countries that have small reports that would grow to be an epidemic in the countries? I hear that third world countries are the most likely for such an epidemic to occur.

Renata Simone & Raney Aronson: The Global Outbreak Alert Network, which has been organized by the WHO, is on full alert and not just in third world countries, but all over the world. As you can see by the situation in Toronto it is not just third world countries affected by this.

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Renata Simone & Raney Aronson: On the scale of global epidemics it now seems that SARS is not one of the most serious and we now have the chance to make sure that all of our health systems around the world are ready if and when another global outbreak emerges.

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washingtonpost.com:

That wraps up today's show. Thanks to everyone who joined the discussion.

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