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Dear
Friends
We sympathise with the victims of SARS and
their relatives, and have no wish to make
political capital from this devastating illness,
nor from the suffering and fear that this disease
is now causing throughout many parts of the
world.
There are however hopefully some lessons
that we can, as a global community, learn from
this outbreak.
ITD has said repeatedly that
the farming of carnivorous animals for food
is unnatural, quite apart from the cruelty
question of the stresses put upon such
animals and the inhumane manner in which they are
treated.
Evidence increasingly suggests
that this virus was caused by man breeding and
eating these animals and originated in the
notorious Guangdong market in China. The following
item was recently reported by
CNN.
Evidence
SARS 'jumped from
animals'
CNN
Wednesday, May
28, 2003
HONG KONG, China -- Scientists say
antibodies found in workers who handled exotic
animals at a food market in southern China
supports their theory the SARS virus jumped from
animals to humans.
In a random study of ten
market workers in Guangdong's capital of
Shenzhen, researchers from the University of
Hong Kong and the Shenzhen Disease Prevention
and Control Center, found five were carrying
SARS antibodies, disease-fighting chemicals that
give evidence of infection. |
Cats at
a wild animal market in
Guangdong. |
But none of them could recall
being sick, which suggests they had mild
infections, The Associated Press quoted WHO SARS
virologist Dr. Klaus Stohr as saying.
The
findings indicate workers caught the virus from
the animals, developed a mild form of the disease,
but then the virus mutated into a more virulent
form before it was passed to other people,
Shenzhen microbiologist He Jianfan told
AP.
Last week, scientists said they had
found the SARS virus in three species of mammals
for sale at the Dongmen Market -- civet cats,
raccoon dogs and badgers -- giving researchers
some more clues in a puzzling disease.
Even
as scientists rush to find the origins of SARS and
a possible vaccine for it, in neighboring Hong
Kong leaders on Wednesday asked a panel of
international experts to help them prepare for
future disease outbreaks.
The nine experts
from around the world will assess how Hong Kong
handled the SARS outbreak and make recommendations
so that if the SARS virus hits again in force this
winter, the city can be prepared. (City wants to
do better)
The group, comprising nine
medical experts from around the world, will come
up with a report with recommendations by
September, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa told a
news conference.
The flu-like virus has
killed 270 people and infected 1,730 in Hong Kong
after it jumped across the border from the
neighboring province of Guangdong.
On
Wednesday, Hong Kong authorities reported one
person had died from SARS and two others had
become infected.
For more up to date news
on the SARS virus and its connection
with Asian animal consumption, please visit
our sister site Sirius at http://sirius.2kat.net (click on SARS on the
menu).
Please also note ITD's new
e-mail address of itd@2kat.net - due to the
incompetence of the Freeola ISP, our old address
of itstheirdestiny@uk6.net has been unreliable
for the last few weeks. If you have sent us
e-mails in this time and have not received a
reply, can you please resend to our new
address.
Our continued thanks to all of you for
caring.
From all the team at
ITD
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