:: Balisawsaw ::These are just rantings of a Fool.
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Statistics gives us such a sterile view of happenings in the world around us.
Dr. Carlo Urbani, an expert on communicable diseases, died today of SARS. Dr. Urbani, worked in public health programs in Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam. He was based in Hanoi, Viet Nam. Dr. Urbani was 46.
We read the news flash on his death and we just see an additional 1 death due to SARS. But Dr. Urbani is very much a complete human being like you and me. Dr. Urbani was the first WHO officer to identify the outbreak of this new disease, in an American businessman who had been admitted to a hospital in Hanoi. Because of his early detection of the disease, global surveillance was heightened and many new cases have been identified and isolated before they infected hospital staff. In Hanoi, the SARS outbreak appears to be coming under control.
“Carlo was a wonderful human being and we are all devastated,” said Pascale Brudon, the World Health Representative in Viet Nam. “He was very much a doctor, his first goal was to help people. Carlo was the one who very quickly saw that this was something very strange. When people became very concerned in the hospital, he was there everyday, collecting samples, talking to the staff and strengthening infection control procedures.”
Dr. Urbani was married and the father of three children.
Each of the 54 SARS victims (as of Mar. 26) is an individual human being whose life has been snuffed out by the deadly SARS.
What about the IRAQ war casualty statistics? Its so easy to tick off the numbers..,
100 "terror squad members" killed in fighting around Najaf and Samawah in southern Iraq;
there have been at least 67 confirmed coalition deaths in the war. Lt. Thomas Mullin Adams 27 Exchange officer with the Royal Navy's 849 Squadron La Mesa, California Killed when two British helicopters collided over the Persian Gulf on March 22, 2003.; 3000++ Iraqis dead. For each person dead, a whole family and circle of friend is devastated, forever scarred by the war.
And inother news statistics..."At least 20 rebels were killed , three policemen killed including one inspector of the Philippine national police mobile group, and one soldier killed," says the inquirer...and we move on to the next news item...
:: Bing Monday, March 31, 2003
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