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CNN Live Today

Stopping SARS

Aired April 28, 2003 - 10:46   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now the SARS epidemic has fueled worldwide concern, and in some cases, out and out panic, and that means what began as a medical crisis is now rippling across political and economic lines as well, and that's just part of the focus of "Newsweek" magazine's cover story on the treatment of SARS and its wide-ranging implications.
Joining us to discuss that is Claudia Kalb. She's the general editor for "Newsweek," who works primarily on health stories. Good to see you this morning, Claudia. Thank you for coming in and talking about this.

You talked about here how this story about SARS has really crossed medical and political lines now. Have you ever seen anything like this?

CLAUDIA KALB, "NEWSWEEK MAGAZINE": I think it's one of the most interesting aspects of this story. I mean, you did see it with HIV, obviously another kind of epidemic that started out with a huge fear factor, ends up becoming much more than a medical story. And this is what makes it so interesting and so energetic right now, there's so many mysteries about it, and it's also psychological, economic, political.

HARRIS: Yes, but this one seemed to grow a lot faster than the HIV crisis. It took a long time to get people on bard here. And as a matter of fact, as recently as a couple weeks ago, I think I read somewhere where someone way saying, an expert was quoted in the paper, saying come on now, just get a grip here, we're only talking about a handful of deaths here, this really isn't that big of a deal. What happened between the last couple of weeks now to make it such a big deal?

KALB: Well, part of it is this global infrastructure we have. Everybody is traveling, so it's much harder to contain the virus, and we do see all sorts of things going on, in terms numbers going up, hotspots like Hong Kong and China, where you are not sure what is going on in terms of transmission. You don't know exactly how people are getting it, you don't why some people get sicker than others. The mysteries involved is what's causing all the fear and the panic.

HARRIS: One of the mysteries I'm reading about in this article you guys put together at "Newsweek," is how the virus, it's changing its form or changing -- it mutates as it goes from one person to another? What do we know about that?

KALB: Well, well, they are watching to see what is going on, but because it does mutate, it's a quality of the corona virus which causes SARS, that is as it continues to multiply, it makes mistakes in that genome, and that causing these mutations, and they are looking at this to see if that could cause more severe cases of SARS, if this thing could actually evolve, or could be different strains of the virus.

So unlike other kinds of diseases that stay pretty much simply what they are, a virus changes all of the time, and that's why it causes so much confusion in terms treating it and diagnosing it. Does it mean it will never, ever be controlled or eliminated?

KALB: It's possible it could be eliminated, but the chances are pretty low. Viruses tend to be very wily, very strong, and they're likely to stay around. The key is to contain it, and be able to figure out how to treat it. If we can do that, we'll be able to live with it.

HARRIS: Are you surprised by these numbers coming from China, where it seems almost every other hour now, the numbers keep going up and up?

KALB: Unfortunately, China, if they had dealt with it earlier, and then asked these problems earlier way back in the fall, a lot of this spread might never have happened, and it's unfortunate that the Chinese numbers now, because of the close quarters, because of transmission being faster there, it's very unfortunate, but it's not surprising that those numbers are growing.

HARRIS: Yes, and there may be a political price to pay for that.

HARRIS: Finally this morning, any idea yet on exactly where this even came from? I know there's lots of speculation about it jumping from one species to another. Do we even know that yet?

KALB: We don't know that, but the speculation is that it did jump from species to another. That has happened many times before. And the origin of the place of this probably originated in China. There are a lot of contacts between birds and people, and there seems to be likely a connection, but it still needs to be studied and to be confirmed.

HARRIS: All right, well, we sure appreciate you coming in and sharing the insight. And nice work on that piece. Very interesting, folks.

Cover of "Newsweek" this week. Claudia Kalb, thank you very much.

KALB: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired April 28, 2003 - 10:46   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now the SARS epidemic has fueled worldwide concern, and in some cases, out and out panic, and that means what began as a medical crisis is now rippling across political and economic lines as well, and that's just part of the focus of "Newsweek" magazine's cover story on the treatment of SARS and its wide-ranging implications.
Joining us to discuss that is Claudia Kalb. She's the general editor for "Newsweek," who works primarily on health stories. Good to see you this morning, Claudia. Thank you for coming in and talking about this.

You talked about here how this story about SARS has really crossed medical and political lines now. Have you ever seen anything like this?

CLAUDIA KALB, "NEWSWEEK MAGAZINE": I think it's one of the most interesting aspects of this story. I mean, you did see it with HIV, obviously another kind of epidemic that started out with a huge fear factor, ends up becoming much more than a medical story. And this is what makes it so interesting and so energetic right now, there's so many mysteries about it, and it's also psychological, economic, political.

HARRIS: Yes, but this one seemed to grow a lot faster than the HIV crisis. It took a long time to get people on bard here. And as a matter of fact, as recently as a couple weeks ago, I think I read somewhere where someone way saying, an expert was quoted in the paper, saying come on now, just get a grip here, we're only talking about a handful of deaths here, this really isn't that big of a deal. What happened between the last couple of weeks now to make it such a big deal?

KALB: Well, part of it is this global infrastructure we have. Everybody is traveling, so it's much harder to contain the virus, and we do see all sorts of things going on, in terms numbers going up, hotspots like Hong Kong and China, where you are not sure what is going on in terms of transmission. You don't know exactly how people are getting it, you don't why some people get sicker than others. The mysteries involved is what's causing all the fear and the panic.

HARRIS: One of the mysteries I'm reading about in this article you guys put together at "Newsweek," is how the virus, it's changing its form or changing -- it mutates as it goes from one person to another? What do we know about that?

KALB: Well, well, they are watching to see what is going on, but because it does mutate, it's a quality of the corona virus which causes SARS, that is as it continues to multiply, it makes mistakes in that genome, and that causing these mutations, and they are looking at this to see if that could cause more severe cases of SARS, if this thing could actually evolve, or could be different strains of the virus.

So unlike other kinds of diseases that stay pretty much simply what they are, a virus changes all of the time, and that's why it causes so much confusion in terms treating it and diagnosing it. Does it mean it will never, ever be controlled or eliminated?

KALB: It's possible it could be eliminated, but the chances are pretty low. Viruses tend to be very wily, very strong, and they're likely to stay around. The key is to contain it, and be able to figure out how to treat it. If we can do that, we'll be able to live with it.

HARRIS: Are you surprised by these numbers coming from China, where it seems almost every other hour now, the numbers keep going up and up?

KALB: Unfortunately, China, if they had dealt with it earlier, and then asked these problems earlier way back in the fall, a lot of this spread might never have happened, and it's unfortunate that the Chinese numbers now, because of the close quarters, because of transmission being faster there, it's very unfortunate, but it's not surprising that those numbers are growing.

HARRIS: Yes, and there may be a political price to pay for that.

HARRIS: Finally this morning, any idea yet on exactly where this even came from? I know there's lots of speculation about it jumping from one species to another. Do we even know that yet?

KALB: We don't know that, but the speculation is that it did jump from species to another. That has happened many times before. And the origin of the place of this probably originated in China. There are a lot of contacts between birds and people, and there seems to be likely a connection, but it still needs to be studied and to be confirmed.

HARRIS: All right, well, we sure appreciate you coming in and sharing the insight. And nice work on that piece. Very interesting, folks.

Cover of "Newsweek" this week. Claudia Kalb, thank you very much.

KALB: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com