Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
During the outbreak, SARS produced significant levels of fear and psychological
trauma in affected populations, impeded international trade and migration flows,
and resulted in significant economic damage to the economies of many Pacific Rim
countries (particularly china and canada). this chapter argues that SarS generated
substantial institutional innovation at the domestic level (particularly in china and
canada), while generating a powerful yet ephemeral change at the level of global
governance.
Demographic Impact and Aetiology
Despite the fact that the SarS epidemic threatened the economies of seriously
affected states and posed a grave threat to the health of populations in the region, it
was successfully contained with relatively little mortality. Specifically, the epidemic
resulted in 8422 cases of infection (morbidity) and 916 deaths (mortality) between
1 november 2002 and 7 august 2003, exhibiting a mortality rate of approximately
10.88 percent (World Health Organization [WHO] 2003a). The SarS coronavirus
is thought to be a novel zoonotic pathogen that recently crossed over from its animal
reservoir (in which it had apparently gone from bats to civet cats) into humans
(Peiris, lai, and Poon 2003). It is imperative to note that the damage generated
by the epidemic was not so much the result of the morbidity and mortality that
SarS induced, but rather the fear and panic that the epidemic generated, both within
infected areas and in uninfected populations. 2 this fear resulted in sub-optimal
economic outcomes for the entire Pacific Rim as tourism ground to halt, international
trade flows were slowed, and foreign investors cautiously withdrew from the region
during the crisis.
Literature Review
For the catastrophe was so overwhelming that men, not knowing what would happen
next to them, became indifferent to every rule of religion or of law … athens owed to
the plague the beginnings of a state of unprecedented lawlessness. Seeing how quick
and abrupt were the changes of fortune … people now began openly to venture on acts
of self-indulgence which before then they used to keep in the dark … as for what is
called honour, no one showed himself willing to abide by its laws, so doubtful was it
whether one would survive to enjoy the name for it … no fear of god or law of man had
a restraining influence. As for offences against human law, no one expected to live long
enough to be brought to trial and punished.
—thucydides
the study of the role of public health and international relations theory has its
genesis in thucydides' account of the plague of athens, wherein he observed
the withering effect of contagion upon the governance of the athenian city-state.
 
 
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