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Despite the devastating pandemic of HIV/AIDS that erupted in the early 1980s, despite the failure to eradicate polio and the emergence of resistant forms of tuberculosis that came into focus in the 1990s, and despite newly emerging diseases like SARS in 2003 and the fearsome prospect of human-to-human avian flu, it is nevertheless a time of some excitement over prospects for effective control of much of infectious disease. Funded by national and international governmental and nongovernmental organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO); private foundations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; and even popular entertainers, like Bono, large-scale new efforts are under way to address global killers like AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, among others. This “marvelous momentum” can be seen as part of a continuing effort from the time of Jenner on. Extrapolating from this, we “think big” in order to explore the notion of a comprehensive global effort. Five tracks are identified: 1) national and international organizations and the development of collective will; 2) epidemiologic and healthcare infrastructure; 3) scientific development; 4) religious, social, and cultural considerations; 5) legal and social protections for individuals and groups.

This chapter describes the experimental studies demonstrating that the virus SARS-CoV is the aetiological agent of the disease SARS. Clinical and post-mortem specimens from 436 SARS patients in six countries were tested for infection with SARS-CoV, human metapneumovirus, and other respiratory pathogens. SARS-CoV infection was diagnosed in 75% of patients fitting the case definition of SARS, hMPV was diagnosed in only 12%, and other respiratory pathogens were found only sporadically, suggesting that SARS-CoV was the most likely etiologic agent of SARS. Four SARS-CoV-infected macaques excreted SARS-CoV from nose, mouth, and pharynx and displayed pathological signs very similar to those of humans suffering from SARS. Replication in SARS-CoV-infected macaques of pneumonia comparable to that in SARS, combined with the high prevalence of SARS-CoV infection in SARS patients, fulfills Koch's postulates and proves that SARS-CoV is the primary cause of SARS.

The greatest threat we face from biological agents of death today is not from humans – it is from nature itself. A bioterrorist attack that could kill hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans is a possibility, but one with low probability. A pandemic caused by a naturally occurring biological pathogen that could kill tens of thousands, possibly millions, of Americans is an absolute certainty. Natural pandemics are a regularly occurring phenomenon throughout history. The tens of billions spent on bioterrorism defense have modestly improved our ability to resist a natural pandemic, but only modestly. This chapter examines the history of natural pandemics in America, and decribes what must be done if we are to avoid the tragedy of the 1918 flu pandemic.

This chapter discusses the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) virus, which originated from Guangdong Province in China. Topics covered include symptoms, spread of the virus, and research on the SARS virus.

This chapter reviews the evolution and ecology of emerging diseases. Human infectious diseases are caused by more than 1400 pathogen species with considerable diversity in lifestyles. Almost all pathogens of newly emerging diseases come from animal reservoirs. Most are viruses, especially RNA viruses. The emergence of a new infectious disease in the human population involves exposure to the pathogen, successful infection of the hosts, and sufficient transmission between hosts. These different levels of emergence make up the ‘pathogen pyramid’. Both ecological and evolutionary changes can affect a pathogen's position on the pyramid. HIV/AIDS, influenza (H5N1), SARS, Ebola, and monkeypox are emerging diseases. From the available data it is hard to tell if ecological changes alone caused these diseases to emerge or if evolutionary changes were sometimes involved as well. The past provides some guidelines as to which kinds of pathogen are most likely to emerge in the future.

This chapter presents the case study by Ngoh Tiong Tan with regard to the SARS epidemic. It details how one country addressed the threat of the pandemic and spells out potential roles for social workers. Although some of the interventions described are specific to Singapore and may not work in other contexts, the discussion provides a useful example as the world as a whole and the profession of social work in particular face future global health threats.

This chapter focuses on discourse as social practice in terms of analyzing SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) case reports. Such analysis highlights the indispensable role the case report has played in the governmental management of the SARS crisis. One way to explore discourse as social practice is to examine how it is realized in a generic structure. This approach mostly stems from the perspective of the Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). The SFL study of the interplay of metafunctions with generic structures provides much insight for genre analysis. The genre analysis of the SARS case report takes an essential step further to analyze the interplay between register and generic structure.

In early 2003, an outbreak of a new disease, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), caused panic around the world. When the disease was finally brought under control and the costs were totalled, SARS had claimed 321 lives in twenty-six countries. The estimated cost to the global economy was between US$40 billion and US$140 billion. In contrast, HIV has been recognized for more than twenty years. Since the epidemic began, more than sixty million people have been infected and twenty million died. The HIV pandemic has not been brought under control, and the toll continues to mount. Yet, this disease has not had the level of global, social, and economic response that SARS had. This chapter explains why this is the case, by first looking at the social and economic impacts of the pandemic.

This chapter discusses the role of epidemiology in the control of malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and emerging infections such as SARS and avian flu in Asia and Thailand. It argues that epidemiology as a means for providing information for action will be increasingly important in influencing policy and practices both nationally and internationally because of new threats from emerging diseases, ethnic conflicts, environmental pollution, and other risks including trade in agricultural products. Lessons learned from the epidemics of HIV/AIDS, SARS, and avian influenza A in Asia, and in particular in Thailand, have shown that epidemiology informing policy and practices can be effective despite the complexity.

Johnnie To Kei-fung has been an unobtrusive but prolific and innovative contributor to the Hong Kong cultural scene. He is an increasingly esteemed filmmaker in Hong Kong, admired among overseas aficionados of Hong Kong action films, as well as a highly experienced film producer and the creative heart of the independent film company, Milkyway Image. The study concentrates on a single work by Johnnie To, namely PTU, and seeks to explain the significance of an underestimated gem of a film, indeed something of an unsung masterpiece. The rationale for this case study of PTU is that the film is the most distinctive in the To back catalogue, the one that is hardest to place or categorize, and the one that demands most engagement, or at least concentration, from the spectator. This opening chapter introduces the reader to his work and style.

Since its launch in April 1998, Caijing had been focusing on business news. However, the magazine continued to prowl for broad public interest topics with a potential economic or business impact. By the time Caijing's editors gathered for their first post-holiday brainstorming session, SARS had shot to the top of the agenda. The magazine's editor-in-chief, Hu Shuli, argued that the potential for a SARS epidemic made it a critical piece of hard news. Furthermore, it also raised concerns about China's institutional preparedness for dealing with a major health crisis. Caijing's April 20 issue on the epidemic sold out at Chinese newsstands. Hu Shuli interpreted robust demand for the magazine as the surest sign that SARS had truly become a topic of urgent public concern, and many regarded the search for the origins of the disease not as an abstract scientific issue, but rather as a matter of life and death.

This chapter investigates the role of emancipating structures in the development of negative asymmetry. It compares high-profile cases involving worst-case scenarios including the SARS outbreak of 2003, the Y2K threat of 2000, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's handling of the “Phoenix memo” in 2001, and the Challenger disaster of 1986. The analysis reveals that certain structures play a pivotal role in nurturing the cognitive deviance needed to anticipate and avoid disaster. This chapter shows how emancipating structures can loosen the hold of dominant cultural practices and free groups and communities to pursue both unanticipated problems and creative solutions.

This chapter assesses Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which represented the first new viral pandemic of the 21st century. Beginning mysteriously in Southern China during November of 2002, this plague was brought under control by 2004, but only after spreading to thirty-three countries on five continents and infecting over eight thousand humans, seven-hundred and seventy-four of whom died. How the disease spread exemplifies the speed and breadth of viral migration today. Then, as mysteriously as it came, SARS disappeared. However, a closely related viruses, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), first emerged in the Arabian Peninsula in 2012 and COVID-19 emerged in China in 2019 with both spreading globally. SARS , MERS and CVID-19 are members of the coronavirus family. At present, distinct species of bats have been implicated as natural reservoir for SARS maintaining this viruses in the communities it occupies. Meanwhile, how MERS first infected humans and what the animal carrier is are not clear; the suspects are bats and camels. For COVET-19 bats and civets are the suspects

This chapter is based on research conducted in the pseudonymous city of Tianmai between 2008 and 2014. It takes note of public health science after the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) breakout was supposed to “save” China in part by promoting the reputation and standing of China's public health community throughout the world. With regard to this promise, the young, well-educated scientists who worked at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in the Pearl River Delta in the years following the 2003 SARS epidemic were largely disappointed. They had arrived at their new posts full of idealism and ambition, but by the end of the decade they were voicing frustration, boredom, and embarrassment. What bothered these young scientists most of all was their feelings of powerlessness with regard to acting on this knowledge. The lingdao must still receive his statistics, the money must be spent, and the migrants must be counted and vaccinated. In this vein, the most commonly repeated phrase heard from the younger generation of scientists was one of fatalism: there is nothing to be done, it is all determined by the leaders. Modern science was contrasted with traditional clientelism to produce an ideal that felt impossible to attain.

This chapter provides a primer that introduces the reader to the key features of each of the book’s four case studies. Each case is outlined in terms of: the nature of the crisis that created a lesson-learning episode in the first instance; the format and focus of the public inquiry; the inquiry’s most important recommendations; and the nature of the reform agenda that followed. The chapter concludes with a brief reiteration of the book’s theoretical framework and how it will be applied in the analysis that follows in Chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8.

This book finds that the Maoist medical model disseminated around the world is not how this model actually worked. The conclusion delineates the true Maoist medical model’s four components: persuasion and coercion of both the leaders and the participants, extensive government inputs, local knowledge and administration, and mass effort. Then it historicizes the model by comparing the snail-fever campaign to the contemporaneous global malaria campaign run by the World Health Organization. The malaria campaign had strikingly similar idiosyncratic strategies but lacked the components that made the Maoist health model successful. Next, it explores why the famous snail-fever campaign failed during the Reform era (1976–present), finding that failure occurred mainly because it lacked the Maoist medical model. The chapter concludes by showing that a rejuvenated Maoist medical model led to the success of the 2003 campaign against SARS.

In human society past and present, animals have figured symbolically to dramatize human relationships, emotions, and fantasies. Under the modern condition, as animals retreat from urban life, animal imagery has pervaded the cultural landscape more than ever and moral questions concerning animals have also become ever so urgent. Building on the pioneering work by historians and philosophers, Chapter 2 traces the trajectory of animal tropism in Chinese literary history in the longue durée of changing human-animal relations. Reading four novels and a film closely—namely Journey to the West, Such Is This World@Sars.Come, Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out, Wolf Totem, and Cala, My Dog!—this chapter shows how animals have lost their fabulous or monstrous qualities and come to figure the “bare life” that subtends both human and animal existence in the biopolitical regime.