Guangdong is the southern most Chinese province, so it is actually in South East Asia

nick was the "hong kong jog". the photoshopped images were pretty interesting, like the swatch takeover of the whitehouse .

F'cough

Re: The Wired article...
Yeah, I think I still have that issue...what was it, "Scenarios"? It looked like it was the supposed to be the first in an intermitent series of specials, but I don't remember seeing followup editions.

Kind of interesting, seeing a (still holding up reasonably well, IIRC) set of predictions for the future along side some ads promoting 8x CD-ROMs as blazingly fast...that one ad with b+w pix of a speed test subject getting his face shoved back by the wind.

If memory serves: The fictional superbug article you're mentioning (cured by long distance collaboration in a VR that let researches play with molecules like they were tinkertoys) had the extra symptom that in its most virulent stages patients tended to sprint around wildly, maximizing the spread. I think the disease had a nickname like "the running man fever" maybe? Also had memorable images (photoshopped? Or just repurposed from some other news article) of a quarantined plane set ablaze, and corpses bobbing in brackish water. And then a "swatch" line of colored chemical suits. In the end they find a cure and distribute vaccinations via McDondalds.

Before everyone gets too freaked out by the story linked on BoingBoing, take a peek at the following:

http://www.canada.com/ottawa/story.asp?id=...C-A82A-EB74BDDB473F

Key quotes:

"Today we had, thankfully, good news that everybody is improving. They're all in stable condition," said Dr. Bonnie Henry, an associate medical officer of health for Toronto. "They're basically improving and getting better."

"Patients are being treated with heavy doses of broad-spectrum antibiotics and anti-viral drugs, which appear to be working."

"plus growing evidence that the illness is transmitted only via close contact with an infected person, is leading public health officials to urge the public not to become unduly alarmed. "

"It's believed the illness is transmitted by droplets that are sneezed or coughed by an infected person. Gravity helps fight the spread of such diseases; airborne diseases such as chickenpox are significantly more infectious."

I read elsewhere the incubation period was only 3 days. If it's actually 5 to 7 days this vector could be so very much more dangerous.

I agree, this looks like the much predicted super-flu that hops out of Asia every few decades. Not a lot of deaths so far, but treatment requires a high degree of medical attention. It has a real possibility of totally overwhelming health care services wherever it strikes.

"When" this hits the States, look for a run on medical masks and large numbers of people choosing to stay home.

cypherpunks, I was just thinking the same thing. Glad I got back from Asia when I did, otherwise I'd be completely freaking out right now. It was bad enough being on my back for 2 days with food poisoning wondering if it was the onset
of Malaria or Dysentary or something...

Edited by author 03-17-2003 02:05 AM
It appears to have originated in Guangdong, which is not in SEA. But I'm nervous... that 5-7 day incubation period really gets me nervous.

My first thought was that maybe it was the North Koreans doing something really, really, stupid.

But most likely it's just the churning germ mill of SE Asia simply coughing up a once-in-a-century superbug.

Edited by author 03-17-2003 01:06 AM
How long until Bush and Co. link this with Saddam and/or Osama? :)

Seriously though, I live in Vancouver and I think I'll avoid high infection zones for the next few days. I'm riding my bike instead of taking the bus, which as we all know is a festering disease pit.

Arrgh. I have a pesky persistant upper respiratory flu and reading this stuff is making me a paranoid mess.

Anybody remembers that old fictional Wired story about the supeflu that came out of China?

Hell, for a non-fictional precedent think about the 1918 flu.