Scared of New Virus? Wash
Your Hands, Experts Say
Excerpt By Maggie Fox, Reuters Health

Worried about catching the stubborn and frightening virus suspected of killing more than 50 people and infecting hundreds worldwide? Wash your hands, health officials advise.

Ordinary infection-control measures that can protect people from viruses ranging from the common cold to influenza should work to kill the virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise.

At least 55 people have died and about 1,500 others have contracted the mystery virus since late last year, according to the World Health Organization. Most of the cases have been in southern China and Southeast Asia.

Worried citizens of Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan have taken to wearing surgical masks in public and many avoid cinemas and shopping malls.

WHO, CDC and Canadian officials have issued travel warnings, noting SARS has traveled the globe by airliner.

The CDC and WHO believe they are closing in on a virus that may cause SARS, saying it may be a previously unknown strain of a common cold virus called coronavirus.

Like colds, influenza and other respiratory diseases, SARS can be passed when an infected patient coughs or sneezes. The virus is carried in particles of mucus and other fluids that can be inhaled.

It is not clear whether the SARS virus survives in very small particles to be transmitted via the airborne route. Influenza, which kills 26,000 people a year in the United States and up to 500,000 around the world, is spread this way.

FREQUENT HAND-WASHING

Colds and flu are also often spread when an infected person touches his or her nose or mouth and then touches a surface, such as a telephone or elevator button. Anyone later touching that surface can pick up the virus.

This is why health experts recommend frequent hand-washing to stay healthy during cold season.

CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said it is possible the SARS virus is spread this way, also.

"Coronaviruses can survive in the environment for up to two or three hours...so it's possible that a contaminated object could serve as a vehicle for transfer to someone else," she told reporters on Saturday.

"If you were in the elevator and an infectious person literally coughed on you, it's conceivable that you could acquire a respiratory infection, including SARS, through that mechanism," added.

"On the other hand, most of the information suggests that fairly prolonged contact, on a face-to-face basis, is typical of the transmissions."

This is because most of those infected have been either relatives or health-care workers treating patients. Dr. Carlo Urbani, the WHO doctor who first identified the outbreak, died after treating some of the first patients in Vietnam.

But because one patient infected several others at a Hong Kong hotel, and because of an outbreak at a Hong Kong apartment block, Gerberding said it is possible that SARS spreads more easily than at first believed.

Masks should be worn by health-care workers and SARS patients, she said.

Others can use good old-fashioned hygiene.

"That means washing your hands with soap and water, or using an alcohol-based hand rub frequently, and particularly after any contact with body fluids," she said.

Household disinfectants including bleach will kill the virus and, as is the case with all microbes, soap and water will wash them down the drain.

Reference Source 89

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