X-Message-Number: 21662 From: "John de Rivaz" <> Subject: A speculation about the nature of SARS Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 10:20:39 +0100 A wild speculation: Suppose people are becoming more hospital orientated, and therefore take themselves to a hospital when they have the current bug going around. Once there some are admitted, and there is a ward with lots of people all with slightly different respiratory diseases. They cross infect each other, and the ward then ends up full of people with many respiratory diseases all at once. The resulting **combination** of diseases causes a high fatality rate. The same speculation could apply to people who don't stay at home or go to bed when ill -- they stay in the community spreading their disease and also catching others, until the combination is too severe for them to go on. There do seem to be an awful lot of different infectious respiratory diseases going about at the moment. Such a speculation would then explain why different viruses are claimed to be the cause of SARS. Is this possible? -- Sincerely, John de Rivaz: http://John.deRivaz.com for websites including Cryonics Europe, Longevity Report, The Venturists, Porthtowan, Alec Harley Reeves - inventor, Arthur Bowker - potter, de Rivaz genealogy, Nomad .. and more Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=21662