Dear everyone,
The real hero is Dr. Carlo Urbani born in 1956 who
identified SARS but passed away on March 29, 2003.
Tribute to Dr. Carlo Urbani, Identifier of SARS
On 29 March 2003, the World Health Organisation
doctor who first identified the fast-spreading pneumonia that has killed 54
people worldwide has himself died of the disease.
'Dr Carlo Urbani, an expert on communicable
diseases, died today of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome', the Geneva-based UN
health agency said in a statement, using the provisional name that doctors have
given to the illness.
The 46-year-old Italian, married and with three
children, 'was the first World Health Organisation officer to identify the
outbreak of this new disease, in an American businessman who had been admitted
to a hospital in Hanoi', it added.
Dr Urbani first saw the US businessman on Feb 28,
two days after he had been admitted to a hospital in the Vietnamese capital
Hanoi, WHO Communication Officer Dick Thompson said.
Although Urbani had worn a mask, he lacked goggles
and other protective clothing. He began demanding that Hanoi hospitals stock up
on protective gear and tighten up infection control procedures. ''He was
frustrated at how long it was taking to teach infection-control procedures to
people in hospitals,'' Thompson says. ''There were shortages of supplies, like
disposable masks, gowns, gloves.''
Soon, the Vietnam-France Hospital was closed to
all but infected health workers and those who cared for them. Those still on
the job were joined by doctors and nurses from around the world. The threat didn't deter Urbani either.
After three weeks of round-the-clock effort, Urbani's supervisor urged him to take a few days off to
attend a medical meeting in
He called his wife, Giuliana,
his childhood sweetheart, now living in
''He said 'Go back to
Dr Urbani, who was based
in
(Embedded image moved to file: pic00041.pcx)
having developed a fever was put into isolation on his
arrival where he remained until his death. He was 46.
Pascale Brudon, WHO
representative in Vietnam, said, ochHe was very much a doctor, his first goal was to
help people.
'Carlo Urbani's death
saddens us all deeply at WHO,' the UN agency's
Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland
said in the statement.
'His life reminds us again of our true work in
public health,' she said.
Medecins Sans Frontieres-Italy (無國界醫生) said it had lost an innovative president and
said its thoughts were with Dr Urbani’s family.
He was buried