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American Morning
Paging Dr. Gupta: Look into SARS
Aired April 25, 2003 - 08:46 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: While people have become alarmed by the SARS outbreak, the numbers show that the survival rate from it is quite high. Other diseases like AIDS and cancer take more lives, and for more on this threat. We're paging our medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who is at the CNN Center.
Sanjay, the survival rate is high, so is this a death sentence?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, No, it's not. It's an important point. It's certainly not a death sentence. Let's take a quick look at the numbers, bring people up to speed on that first, 4,439 that's the number that's being reported around the world, 263 deaths around the world, 247 possible cases in the United States, and certainly zero U.S. deaths, Heidi.
But I think you're asking exactly the right question, Heidi, which is, what does it mean for individuals? Individuals who may contract SARS. Certainly becoming very scary issue, but if you look at the numbers in terms of people who recover versus people that die, I think this provides some comfort to people. This is early data still, only two or three months worth of data, 6 percent of people certainly dying, and I think what's got people a little frightened, 10 to 20 percent of people are requiring treatment in the intensive care unit, possibly getting very sick from this.
Heidi, as well, it's important to point out that when someone is possibly diagnosed with SARS, what happens to them now. There are some strict protocols in effect in the United States and around the world. Isolation really being the key to this. If you can get people isolated quickly, possibly treating in an intensive care unit, and then the possible antiviral treatment. That's a little bit more controversial, what antiviral treatments to give, what not to give at this point, but doctors are certainly working on that.
HEMMER: Sanjay, after so much talk about this, people are really focusing on a cure. What is the latest there?
GUPTA: Well, it's interesting. It's sort of an interesting case study in healthcare. I'll give you a peak behind the curtain. What happens in a situation like this, whenever there is a new disease or new virus that comes about, a lot of the existing antiviral treatments are tried.
Right now, around the world, there are about 36 antiviral treatments that exist, and those are individually going to be tried over the period of the next several months. That step one. Step two really is to look at all the antiviral treatments that are in development right now. They're going to start accelerating some of those and see if any of those work as well. There is about 30 of those.
If neither of those steps work, the next step really will be to try and start from scratch, if you will. Look at the genome of this thing, which they've already sequenced, and find an antiviral, a medication that targets this virus to be specific for this particular SARS thing.
Now, one of the controversial things, there is a drug called Ribavivarin (ph) out there. The name's not that important. But what's sort of interesting is that doctors in Hong Kong thinks that it has some effectiveness against the patients out there with SARS.
Here in the United States, they've actually tried that same antiviral in the laboratory, and found that it does not work and, in fact, may be harmful. So folks here in the United States are not getting this particular medication at this time. That is a little bit of a peak behind the curtain, sort of a trial and error process, and that's going to take place for a few months. Hopefully one of these existing antiviral treatments is going to be the answer. That's what everyone is banking on right now.
COLLINS: It is scary, though, Sanjay, I mean, all of the talk we hear about it. Can you try to put into perspective for us what we face in terms of other diseases and do a little comparison maybe?
GUPTA: Yes, it is interesting. That's a good point. A lot of attention being focused on SARS right now, and we've been covering health stories for sometime. A lot of health stories out there that also deserve their attention, because they're still problematic out there. The biggest one, I come back to this, and Bill and I have talked about this, the flu -- 36,000 people die from the flu every year.
Now, you know, those sorts of numbers, you saw those numbers with SARS, that would cause widespread panic. The flu is something people, know how to treat, they know how to prevent. You have 36,000 annually, 284 deaths last year from the West Nile Virus, something we talked about several months ago. Seven people died from this virus last month, certainly the issues of cancer, which people are diagnosed with every day and deaths from cancer as well. It is important to put this in perspective. There have not been any U.S. deaths from SARS yet. There may be one. But still, if you look at these other numbers, it gives you a little bit of perspective on SARS versus other diseases -- Heidi.
COLLINS: That's right. All of those unknowns, though, keep it pretty scary.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks for putting it in perspective.
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 25, 2003 - 08:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: While people have become alarmed by the SARS outbreak, the numbers show that the survival rate from it is quite high. Other diseases like AIDS and cancer take more lives, and for more on this threat. We're paging our medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who is at the CNN Center.
Sanjay, the survival rate is high, so is this a death sentence?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, No, it's not. It's an important point. It's certainly not a death sentence. Let's take a quick look at the numbers, bring people up to speed on that first, 4,439 that's the number that's being reported around the world, 263 deaths around the world, 247 possible cases in the United States, and certainly zero U.S. deaths, Heidi.
But I think you're asking exactly the right question, Heidi, which is, what does it mean for individuals? Individuals who may contract SARS. Certainly becoming very scary issue, but if you look at the numbers in terms of people who recover versus people that die, I think this provides some comfort to people. This is early data still, only two or three months worth of data, 6 percent of people certainly dying, and I think what's got people a little frightened, 10 to 20 percent of people are requiring treatment in the intensive care unit, possibly getting very sick from this.
Heidi, as well, it's important to point out that when someone is possibly diagnosed with SARS, what happens to them now. There are some strict protocols in effect in the United States and around the world. Isolation really being the key to this. If you can get people isolated quickly, possibly treating in an intensive care unit, and then the possible antiviral treatment. That's a little bit more controversial, what antiviral treatments to give, what not to give at this point, but doctors are certainly working on that.
HEMMER: Sanjay, after so much talk about this, people are really focusing on a cure. What is the latest there?
GUPTA: Well, it's interesting. It's sort of an interesting case study in healthcare. I'll give you a peak behind the curtain. What happens in a situation like this, whenever there is a new disease or new virus that comes about, a lot of the existing antiviral treatments are tried.
Right now, around the world, there are about 36 antiviral treatments that exist, and those are individually going to be tried over the period of the next several months. That step one. Step two really is to look at all the antiviral treatments that are in development right now. They're going to start accelerating some of those and see if any of those work as well. There is about 30 of those.
If neither of those steps work, the next step really will be to try and start from scratch, if you will. Look at the genome of this thing, which they've already sequenced, and find an antiviral, a medication that targets this virus to be specific for this particular SARS thing.
Now, one of the controversial things, there is a drug called Ribavivarin (ph) out there. The name's not that important. But what's sort of interesting is that doctors in Hong Kong thinks that it has some effectiveness against the patients out there with SARS.
Here in the United States, they've actually tried that same antiviral in the laboratory, and found that it does not work and, in fact, may be harmful. So folks here in the United States are not getting this particular medication at this time. That is a little bit of a peak behind the curtain, sort of a trial and error process, and that's going to take place for a few months. Hopefully one of these existing antiviral treatments is going to be the answer. That's what everyone is banking on right now.
COLLINS: It is scary, though, Sanjay, I mean, all of the talk we hear about it. Can you try to put into perspective for us what we face in terms of other diseases and do a little comparison maybe?
GUPTA: Yes, it is interesting. That's a good point. A lot of attention being focused on SARS right now, and we've been covering health stories for sometime. A lot of health stories out there that also deserve their attention, because they're still problematic out there. The biggest one, I come back to this, and Bill and I have talked about this, the flu -- 36,000 people die from the flu every year.
Now, you know, those sorts of numbers, you saw those numbers with SARS, that would cause widespread panic. The flu is something people, know how to treat, they know how to prevent. You have 36,000 annually, 284 deaths last year from the West Nile Virus, something we talked about several months ago. Seven people died from this virus last month, certainly the issues of cancer, which people are diagnosed with every day and deaths from cancer as well. It is important to put this in perspective. There have not been any U.S. deaths from SARS yet. There may be one. But still, if you look at these other numbers, it gives you a little bit of perspective on SARS versus other diseases -- Heidi.
COLLINS: That's right. All of those unknowns, though, keep it pretty scary.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks for putting it in perspective.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
