Overseas advice on preventing SARS
美國醫學院建議的預防SARS的方法
The fact of the mysterious pneumonia has been widely spread in HK drives me to do a literature review on the suspected cause (i.e. corona virus) of the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). As a biomedical researcher, let me show you my concern and make the following suggestions.
神秘的非典型性肺炎正在香港廣泛傳播，驅使我對引起SARS(嚴重呼吸道症候群)的病因（例如冠狀病毒）作了一下專業文件上的研究。現在讓我從生物醫學研究者的角度給您一些建議。
The basic mechanism of viral attack is that the viruses replicate themselves using the host's (in this case is "our") DNA genetic replication system. By doing this, our body couldn't function well due to the massive viral replication. Supposing, the immune cells in our body will fight off the infected viruses quickly. However, the viruses are so smart that they could be able to produce some chemical substances to cause our immune cells to die. Besides, this corona virus is a new kind of virus which belongs to a mutated strain and our body cannot recognize it. No antibiotics have been proved to be 100% effective in treating viral infection so far. The only effective way to get rid of it is by ourselves. It likes a prolonged battle between the viruses and our immune response. In fact, viruses couldn't kill all the immune cells in a health individual. The stronger the immune function you have, the less the viral injury you get. Therefore, the degree of sickness after infection and the rate of recovery mainly depends on how strong your immune function is.
濾過性病毒能夠引起疾病的機制是，病毒能夠通過使用病人身体中的DNA基因複製系統來複製自己。如果病毒大量複製自己，則我們的身体就不能正常工作了。於是，我們身体當中的免疫細胞就會很快的殺掉這些感染病毒。然而，這些病毒非常聰明，他們能夠產生某种化學物質而導致我們的免疫細胞死亡。除此以外，冠狀病毒是一种新型的變異病毒，它不能被我們的身体識別。至目前為止，未有任何抗生素能完全有效的對付濾過性病毒。唯一有效殺死病毒的途徑就只有靠我們自己身體了。這樣，在我們的免疫系統和病毒之間就會展開一場長時間的鬥爭。實際上，病毒並不能殺死一個健康人身体中的所有免疫細胞。人身体的免疫功能越強，此人受病毒侵害的機率就越小。所以，在感染病毒後的病情嚴重情況和康復的機率基本上看此人的免疫功能有多強。
You cannot avoid the infection unless you avoid from those infected individuals/area. But, you can try your best to boost up your immune function by several regimes. Make sure you are "extremely healthy" at least during this critical period. Stronger immune function could keep the viral damage minimal even you were so unluckily being infected. Also, stronger immune function delays the onset of any detrimental effects from the viral infection. Scientists are now working on tracking the treatment and so make sure you are still surviving until an effective treatment occurs. The following suggestions aim to strengthen your immune function within a short period of time.
你無法避免被感染，除非你不去接觸被感染者和被感染地區。但是，你可以盡你所能增強你的免疫系統，確保你處於“非常健康”的狀態，至少在這段非常時期。你的免疫系統夠強，就算你非常不幸的被感染上病毒，也會將病毒的侵害降到最低限度。並且，強的免疫系統可延遲濾過性病毒的危害。科學家們現在正在研究如何治療此种肺炎，所以一定要確定你能夠活到有效治療方法研究出來之前。下面是一些在短時期內能夠增強你的免疫功能的方法﹕
Antioxidant nutraceuticals: Antioxidants are chemicals found in foods which exert a great value in strengthening our immune system. Boost up your immune function by taking a cocktail of antioxidant supplements.抗氧化劑﹕抗氧化劑是一种存在於食品中的能夠很好增強我們免疫系統的化學物質。你可以靠服用一些混合抗氧化劑保健品來增強你的免疫功能﹕
Vitamin E 1000 IU per day. Alpha-tocopherol is the biological active form of vitamin E. There are two forms of it: d-tocopherol and dl-tocopherol. d- is the natural form and dl- is the synthetic form. Try to get the d- form because it is absorbed faster in our body.
l ) * Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) 1000 milligram (mg) daily. Instead of taking supplement, you can take 2 pieces of citrus fruits (e.g. orange) a day to
get the vitamin C* Beta-carotene, not more than 10000 IU daily
* Selenium, 200 microgram daily
* Zinc, not more than 500 milligram (mg) daily
* Lipoic acid, 50 mg daily
* Glutathione, 50 mg daily
No any adverse effects have been reported from the above suggested supplementation dose.
每天服用維他命E1000 IU (醫學國際單位，international units)。Alpha-維生E是一种生物活性維他命E。它有兩种形式﹕d-維生素E和dl-維生素E. d-維生素E是自然形式 ，dl-維生素E是合成形式。最好服用d-維他命E，因為它可以更快的被我們的身体所吸收。
每天1000毫克維他命C(抗壞血酸維生素C)。你也可以靠每天食用兩個柑桔類水果（例如桔子）來獲取維他命C。* Beta胡蘿蔔素，每天服用不超過10000IU
* 硒，每天200微克
* 鋅，每天不超過500毫克
* 硫辛酸，每天50毫克
* 榖氨酸類，每天50毫克
照此劑量服用以上物質至今沒有任何報告指出會有任何副作用。
2) * Let green tea to be your daily beverage because it contains tremendous amount of antioxidant flavonoid, catechins. * Eat more tomatoes, broccoli or fruits and vegetables in red and dark green color. They carry a huge amount of antioxidant carotenoids, lycopene and carotene.
* 每天喝綠茶，因為綠茶中含有大量抗氧化劑類黃酮和茶酸。
* 多吃蕃茄，花椰菜，和其它紅色和深綠色的水果，它們含有大量的抗氧化素如胡蘿蔔素。
3) No intense physical activities during this critical period! It has been shown that intense exercise will suppress your immune function (related to the upper respiratory infection) even several days following your workout. Instead of intense exercise, light-to-moderate workout helps if you have
been training regularly.
在這段非常時期不要做劇烈運動！因為劇烈運動會壓抑你的免疫系統功能（與你的上呼吸道感染有關的免疫系統功能），並且此壓抑情況會持續好几天。如果你已養成定期鍛煉的習慣，那麼在這段時間你可以做一些輕度或中度運動。
4)Make sure you get enough carbohydrate foods (e.g. rice, food concentrated in starch... etc) because carbohydrate is the primary food for immune cells . Do some Gatorade or Pocari if needed since they are both good sources of carbohydrate.
確保你食用足夠的碳水化合物食物（例如，大米及其它富含澱粉的食物），因為碳水化合物是免疫細胞最重要的食物。喝一些Gatorade（一种飲料）或Pocari（一种飲料），因為他們都是富含碳水化合物的飲料。
5) Make sure you get enough sleep and don't make yourself so stressful! Anxiety, depression, and tired will influence your body's stress hormones (e.g. catecholamine and glucocorticoids) and so suppress your immune status.
每天保證充足睡眠，不要使自己處於緊張和壓力之下。焦慮、緊張及疲倦都會影響身体的壓力荷爾蒙（例如，儿茶酚氨和糖皮質激素）從而壓抑身体免疫功能。6) Mouth-mask helps despite it is not 100% effective. But it can stilldecrease the chance from infection.
口罩雖然不能100%預防感染，但是能夠起到一定的作用，仍然可以減少被感染機率。
All the above information are supported by peer-reviewed biomedical literatures, that means they are credible and reliable! God bless and I really hope that none of you will get infected and I will pray for all of you in every moment!
以上所有資料是由檢查生物醫學文件中得到，所以這些建議都是十分可信及可靠的。上帝保佑。我真心希望你們中沒有一個人會被感染。我會時刻為你們大家祈禱平安！Good luck and take extremely care.
祝你們好運，千萬保重。Parco M. Siu, MPhil, PhD Candidate
West Virginia University School of Medicine
西維吉尼亞大學醫學院