The best way for the public to confront fears of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) is to practice basic good health, says a Swarthmore College microbiologist. In addition to information about transmission, people should be aware of factors contributing to susceptibility.
"Not everyone is equally susceptible to SARS," says Amy Cheng Vollmer, an associate professor of biology whose research focuses on bacterial stress response. "Perhaps more important -- people have control over many of the factors contributing to their susceptibility."
Vollmer notes that the most severe SARS cases have been traced to exposures in airplanes or hospitals -- both places where people have close interactions while breathing air that is relatively dry. "These places have dry air for a reason," says Vollmer, the editor of Microbiology Education, a publication of the American Society for Microbiology. "But your respiratory mucus and cilia are the front line of what protects you from respiratory infections and keeps you healthy. When they are exposed to dry air, they stop functioning properly."
Vollmer says people can take some of the following steps to reduce their susceptibility to SARS and many other disease pathogens:
* wash your hands often;* consider wearing a mask if you are in a region with numerous known primary cases;* if you are in a plane or hospital for any length of time, stay fully hydrated;* eat a balanced diet, with the full complement of vitamins and minerals;* if you smoke, quit.
"If you're a smoker, your immune system is already overloaded," Vollmer says. "When your system is compromised, you are more susceptible to infections of all kinds, not just SARS." Vollmer hypothesizes that there may be a correlation between severity of SARS symptoms and smoking.
"As body systems go, much of the immune system is a luxury item -- it costs a great deal of energy to keep it fully functional," Vollmer says. "Your digestion and nervous systems could be considered basic maintenance. But if you are run down in any way, as in from lack of sleep or poor nutrition, or are otherwise not in good health, your immune system is one of the first to be 'downsized.'"
Vollmer hopes that learning about SARS will encourage people to take a more preventative, holistic approach to their health. "As a biologist, I am completely in awe of how healthy most of us are most of the time, given our exposure to many particles and organisms in the air and water," she says. "If we can learn from this outbreak some basic principles about how to maintain good health, then it will be a powerful lesson."
Located near Philadelphia, Swarthmore is a highly selective liberal arts college with an enrollment of 1,450. Swarthmore is consistently ranked among the top liberal arts colleges in the country.
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