The Race To Contain A Virus

  • In recorded history, no disease has jumped the species barrier to infect humans, caused an epidemic and then never threatened us again — not without the discovery of a vaccine or cure to curtail the microbe. Some diseases, such as chicken pox, gradually become endemic to man and eventually result, if we are lucky, in nothing more than a mild childhood illness. Others, such as Ebola, retreat back to whatever animal reservoir they came from, stalking humanity from their hidden lair, only occasionally lashing out to bloody a village or crash a rural hospital. But diseases do not, as a rule, just go away.

    In the past two weeks, with two new cases in China's Guangdong province and suspected cases turning up in Manila and Hong Kong, it seems that severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is re-emerging too. The brutal culling of masked palm civets from Guangdong wildlife markets and farms that commenced last week has only exacerbated the sense that matters had been spiraling out of control. Forestry officials incinerated some civets, boiled others to death and drowned still more in disinfectant. Also called a civet cat, the small, furry mammal with big innocent-looking eyes is unrelated to real cats, being more of a first cousin to the mongoose. Nevertheless, it was as if China was sacrificing thousands of animals to ward off the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse.


    LATEST COVER STORY
    Mind & Body Happiness
    Jan. 17, 2004
     

    SPECIAL REPORTS
     Coolest Video Games 2004
     Coolest Inventions
     Wireless Society
     Cool Tech 2004


    PHOTOS AND GRAPHICS
     At The Epicenter
     Paths to Pleasure
     Quotes of the Week
     This Week's Gadget
     Cartoons of the Week


    MORE STORIES
    Advisor: Rove Warrior
    The Bushes: Family Dynasty
    Klein: Benneton Ad Presidency


    CNN.com: Latest News

    The inside story of how that decision to cull civets came to be made, however, is one of aggressive public health, great courage and, most important, good science. It is very possible that research led by one virologist, Dr. Yi Guan, 42, and the extraordinary measures he took to make officials aware of his work may lead scientists to new ways to contain a fresh SARS outbreak.

    Almost every week for the past year, Yi, a microbiology associate professor at the University of Hong Kong, has traveled by rail up to Shenzhen and Guangzhou to carry out fieldwork. It was Yi, along with the Shenzhen Centers for Disease Control, who in May took samples from Shenzhen's Dongmen Market and made the discovery that the masked palm civet, as well as the raccoon dog and hog badger, carried a virus remarkably similar to the SARS coronavirus. That research, initially hailed as a breakthrough in establishing the zoonotic origins of SARS, resulted in the Guangdong government temporarily banning the sale of civets. For Yi this should have been a crowning moment.

    Instead, subsequent research by a mainland Chinese team challenged Yi's research, finding no evidence of the coronavirus in civets. Meanwhile, other scientists murmured that Yi's data was based on too narrow a range of samples drawn from just one market. Perhaps those civets, some argued, had been infected by humans in that market rather than the other way around. For Yi, a hot-tempered, chain-smoking workaholic, this was an unbearable impugning not just of his research but also of his genuine desire to apply his science to public health. Even more worrying was China's decision in August lifting the ban on sales of civets. By September, the markets were again crawling with them. One dealer in Shenzhen, when asked if he could procure a thousand civet cats, replied, "That's hard." He paused, then added, "It may take me a day to get that many."

    Despite the doubts cast by other scientists, Yi was still sure there was SARS coronavirus in wildlife markets. Taking into account the possibility that seasonality was a factor in the replication of the coronavirus, he waited until October — about a year since the first cases appeared — and began returning to the Guangdong wild-animal markets every week with his black satchel full of syringes, swabs and sample vials. Working with the Guangzhou CDC and the Shenzhen CDC, he paid $6 for each animal he tested to an animal trader who supplied Dongmen Market. In Guangzhou's Xinyuan Market, Yi would buy animals and haul them away in cages to the Guangzhou CDC labs, where he would gather samples before sending the creatures to be destroyed. Occasionally, when he was in a hurry, he would sedate the animal right there in the market, drawing blood and swabbing for feces.

    When Yi brought those samples back to Hong Kong, a frightening picture started to emerge. Not only was he again finding the SARS coronavirus in a host of animals — the civet cat, as well as various types of badger — he was astonished, when he did the genomic sequencing, to observe that these coronaviruses had actually mutated to become more similar to the SARS coronavirus samples taken from humans during the outbreak one year ago. All this confirmed that the disease that had infected humans was again at large. The animals that showed the highest infection rate by far were the civet cats, with 16 positive cases out of 21 animals tested. These civets had come from several different markets and traders, which meant the disease was lurking in wild-animal markets throughout Guangdong — and maybe the rest of China. Roasted whole, braised or added to soups, the animal is considered a delicacy among many Chinese. One reason: civets are said to be full of yang, a heat-giving energy source that, according to traditional belief, helps people stay warmer in cold weather.

    1. Previous Page
    2. 1
    3. 2
    4. 3