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April 28, 2003
INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS
"Now That SARS Has Arrived, Will It Ever Leave?"
New York Times (www.nytimes.com) (04/27/03) P. D1; Kolata, Gina
With the world tuned in to each bit of information about severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the general public has begun asking if it will ever be possible to eradicate the illness or to create a vaccine that completely prevents infection. The short answer, say virologists, is no, because reservoirs of SARS-like illnesses exist in animals and would have to be eradicated as well to eliminate SARS from the planet. Complete elimination of other diseases, such as smallpox, is easier because they affect only humans; yet the initiative to end polio has been long and difficult, even though that disease also infects only humans. In addition, it is easier to stop the spread of a disease when infection is obvious, like smallpox, while diseases like polio and influenza are difficult to detect in some patients, and their immunity to such diseases is even more difficult to detect--with measles, among others, virtually impossible to isolate in the body as a guarantee of immunity.
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