SARS

[tonado]

Mystery Illness Claims Life of Doctor Who First Warned of World Outbreak

 

The pneumonia-like disease has spread to 12 other countries since the Italian physician diagnosed it in a businessman in Hanoi.

By Thomas H. Maugh II

Times Staff Writer

 

March 30, 2003

 

The Italian physician who first recognized that the world was facing an outbreak of a mysterious pneumonia-like illness died Saturday in Hanoi, a victim of the inadequate medical procedures in place before the disease's severity was recognized.

 

The disease -- called severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS -- meanwhile continued its spread around the world, with 58 new cases in Hong Kong alone, some of them among residents of a single floor in an apartment building.

 

Public health authorities in Singapore expanded an existing quarantine to more than 1,500 people. Canada closed a second hospital where health-care workers had been exposed to the virus.

 

The World Health Organization urged the most heavily afflicted countries to begin screening departing airline passengers for symptoms of the illness. And the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expanded its warning against unnecessary travel to Singapore and all of China, in addition to Hong Kong and Vietnam.

 

The World Health Organization said that, as of early Saturday, there were 1,553 suspected cases of the disease in 13 countries and 54 deaths.

 

China remained the most heavily affected with 806 cases, followed by Hong Kong with 470, Singapore with 89 and Vietnam with 58.

 

The United States had 62 suspected cases, but there have been no deaths yet. Canada had 37 probable cases and 36 more suspected cases, with three deaths to date.

 

"Our biggest unknown is what is going on in China," which has been very closemouthed about epidemic-related events, said Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, director of the CDC. "We're desperate to learn more about the scope and magnitude of the problem there. That will be the biggest predictor for where this [epidemic] will go over the next few weeks."

 

On Wednesday, China revealed that it had had more than 800 cases of SARS and 34 deaths, well beyond the 300 cases and five deaths it originally reported. Chinese officials said Friday that they would begin making daily case counts and fatalities available to health agencies electronically but that it would take several days to bring the system online.

 

The most recent fatality from the disease was Dr. Carlo Urbani, 46, an expert on communicable diseases who had worked in WHO health programs in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Urbani diagnosed the illness in an American businessman who had been admitted to a hospital in Hanoi. The businessman subsequently died.

 

Because Vietnamese authorities did not realize initially that they were dealing with such an infectious illness, few precautions against its spread were in place and 56% of the health workers who came in contact with the businessman developed SARS themselves -- accounting for nearly half the cases in that country.

 

Because of Urbani's early efforts, WHO said Saturday, global surveillance was heightened and many new cases were identified and isolated before they could infect other hospital staffers.

 

Urbani was married and the father of three children.

 

"Carlo Urbani's death saddens us all deeply at WHO," said Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, the WHO director-general. "His life reminds us again of our true work in public health."

 

Outside mainland China, the effects of the epidemic have been felt most severely in Hong Kong, where thousands of residents are wearing face masks to prevent infections and many others are simply not venturing onto the streets. The Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corp. shut part of a floor at its main office Saturday after a worker became ill, and the Bank of China closed a branch for thorough cleaning after a staff member there developed symptoms.

 

Antiwar demonstrations have been called off, the Rolling Stones have canceled appearances in China, and some crews on Cathay Pacific Airways have been wearing masks during flights. The airline, Hong Kong's largest, said some flights might be cut.

 

The biggest concern was the new cases among residents of an apartment building. Although authorities have released few details about this new outbreak, experts fear that it could mean a broader incursion of the disease into the general community. So far, virtually all of the cases have been attributed to prolonged, direct contact with patients, with most cases occurring among health workers and family members of patients.

 

But seven cases were previously known to have occurred among people who stayed on the floor of a Hong Kong hotel where an undiagnosed patient was staying.

 

Singapore Airlines also said Friday that an attendant on the flight that carried a Singapore physician to Germany, where he was quarantined with SARS, has now been diagnosed with the disease.

 

Hong Kong's health secretary, Dr. Yeoh Eng-kiong, said that the SARS outbreak is a tougher challenge than the 1997 avian influenza outbreak that killed six people in Hong Kong.

 

"The bird flu was simpler," he said. "All you had to do was kill the chickens. Now you are dealing with humans."

 

In Canada, Ontario officials late Friday ordered the closing of York Central Hospital in Richmond Hill after four cases of the disease were discovered at the facility. Toronto is the site of the largest outbreak of SARS outside Asia, and officials had previously closed Scarborough Grace Hospital in Toronto.

 

Three other Toronto-area hospitals are now accepting only critically ill patients in an effort to limit the spread of the disease.

 

"It is very likely that we will continue to see an increase in the number of cases," said Hanif Kassam of the York region health department. "Whatever steps are taken, there will be a time period before we see any sort of reduction."

 

SARS is characterized by fatigue, high temperatures, coughing and difficulties in breathing. Physicians from 11 countries who conferred Friday in an unusual electronic linkup said 90% of victims recover from the illness with normal supportive care.

 

Those most at risk of developing more serious symptoms are those with other illnesses, such as infectious diseases and heart ailments. The death rate so far is about 3.5%.

 

Although researchers initially suspected that the disease was caused by a paramyxovirus, most now are leaning toward the conclusion that it is triggered by a previously unknown coronavirus, a member of the family that causes colds and other respiratory illnesses in humans and animals.

 

The coronavirus was initially identified by CDC researchers, but labs in seven other countries have now found evidence of its role, said the CDC's Dr. James Hughes.

 

"The preponderance of evidence in support of coronaviruses as the cause is mounting," Hughes said.

 

The CDC has developed antibody and genetic tests to identify the virus and hopes to begin distributing them to local public health authorities within a week, Hughes said. The tests will help identify which suspected cases are caused by the disease.

 

There are no known drugs that kill coronaviruses.

[lori&dave]

I feel so helpless when the municipal government is blocking the news abt the virus. In Shanghai we don;t really read anything abt this report. My Dave is coming in May and we planned to have our wedding pix done in shanghai. He told me abt his worries of this virus, I was unhappy thinking he was over-reacting. But today I did some research on yahoo and realized that epidemic was much worse than I had thought. I am really worried now, abt myself and my sweetie. Who can tell me what is the real situation in Shanghai????? Since no one wears a mask here, I think people here don;t know what's really going on in the air....

[owenkrout]

The Chinese government now admits to cases in Beijing and Shanxii Province. An article in the 21st Century Newpaper in Guangzhou where a doctor claimed that there were more cases than the government was admitting to caused it to be closed down indefinately.

 

The CDC now says the disease is not the flu and it is "could be spread very efficiently through close contact". The number of cases in Hong Kong is starting to spike upward so rapidly that the news sources are having trouble keeping up with it.

 

In short, I am starting to be concerned now. I had figured it would die out with the warmer spring weather, but it has seemed to get worse instead.

 

31 Mar 2003 03:23:53 GMT

HK reports at least 92 new pneumonia cases

 

HONG KONG, March 31 (Reuters) - The Hong Kong government reported on Monday 92 new cases of a deadly pneumonia virus at a single housing estate, bringing the total number of infections in the territory to more than 620.

The disease has killed 59 people worldwide and infected more than 1,600 others.

The number of cases from Amoy Gardens housing estate in Kowloon has risen to 213, Hong Kong Health Secretary Yeoh Eng-kiong told a news briefing. On Sunday there were 121 cases at the housing project.

A sharp jump in the number of cases at the estate has raised fears that the virus could be airborne rather than spread by droplets from sneezing or coughing as previously thought.

The government has ordered residents of one apartment block in Amoy Gardens to be quarantined for 10 days.

 

 

 

Deadly illness' advance stuns CDC

By M.A.J. McKENNA

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The worldwide outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, which has sickened 1,600 people in 14 countries and killed at least 54, could end up killing thousands and hurting national economies.

On three continents, hundreds of people are in intensive care, and thousands are under quarantine. In Asia, where the outbreak began, businesses are closing, airline revenues are falling and communications between governments have taken on a tense and accusatory edge.

But at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the outbreak is hardly a shock. The Atlanta-based agency has been predicting an epidemic like this, and attempting to prepare for it, for years.

"SARS is a global problem that emerged over a few months, results in a severe illness, has no effective therapy and cannot now be prevented by vaccine," said Dr. James Hughes, director of the CDC's National Center for Infectious Diseases. "It is as good an example as you will ever see of an emerging infectious disease."

Emerging infections are caused by disease organisms that have never been seen, or by already-known viruses and bacteria that begin to behave in new ways. In the past 25 years, the CDC has dealt with dozens of examples, from AIDS, first recognized in 1981, to West Nile virus, which arrived in the United States in 1999.

The speed and complexity of SARS' spread has taken aback even the CDC, which has hundreds of Atlanta staff assigned to the illness as well as investigators in Beijing; Hong Kong; Taiwan; Hanoi, Vietnam; Bangkok, Thailand; and Toronto.

 

 

 

 

SARS found to spread easily and efficiently

Lawrence K. Altman NYT Monday, March 31, 2003

 

 

The director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that a mysterious respiratory disease, which has infected hundreds of people worldwide, could be spread very efficiently through close contact, and expressed deep concern that it might also be spread through the air or on contaminated objects. The warning from the agency director, Dr. Julie Gerberding, came Saturday as officials continued to monitor developments in Hong Kong, where the disease, known as SARS, for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, may have sickened 78 people in one apartment complex. ‘‘The potential for infecting large numbers of people is very great,’’ Gerberding said. ‘‘We may be in the very early stages of a much larger’’ epidemic of a disease for which there is no specific treatment beyond standard supportive nursing and respiratory care, she said. ‘‘This is new, we don’t know a lot about it, and we have a lot of questions about the overall spread’’ of the disease and ‘‘the possibility of airborne transmission,’’ she said in a conference call from Atlanta with reporters. ‘‘We are very concerned about the speed’’ with which SARS has spread in Hong Kong, Gerberding added. As of Sunday, 15 countries have reported more than 1,600 cases, including 55 deaths, to the World Health Organization. Many people are recovering, but very slowly, after long hospitalizations, including the need for support from mechanical respirators. Sixty-two cases are under investigation in the United States. Of those, 55 involve people who traveled to affected areas, five are household members or friends of people who may have the disease, and two are health workers who cared for people who may have it, Gerberding said. Officials from the disease centers and World Health Organization have continued to say that it takes close, sustained contact with an affected individual to transmit the virus through droplets expelled through coughs. Epidemiologic evidence exists that, for unknown reasons, some people can transmit the disease to others much more efficiently. Gerberding cited one patient in Hanoi who spread it to 56 percent of the health workers with whom the patient came in contact. That incident occurred before hospital workers began using barrier infection control measures like gloves, masks, gowns and goggles. Such barrier nursing methods have stopped transmission of the virus in hospitals, though Gerberding said scientists did not know whether they were 100 percent effective. Asked about the risk of spread from brief encounters with an affected individual in public places like elevators, Gerberding said, ‘‘We don’t know.’’ But, Gerberding emphasized, ‘‘so far there is no evidence in the United States that those activities are posing any risk.’’ Health officials are increasingly suspicious that a previously unknown virus belonging to the coronavirus family causes the disease, though the evidence is far from conclusive. Because known coronaviruses can survive in the environment for up to three hours, health officials are also concerned about the possibility that the virus could be transmitted through contaminated objects, like an elevator button or a piece of paper. Scientists call these objects fomites. New information has led health officials to extend to 10 days from seven the longest period from exposure to the virus to the onset of symptoms.

[owenkrout]

Just received this from the Shenyang Consulate:

 

To American Citizens in the Shenyang Consular District

 

This is one of an occasional series of messages from the U.S. Consulate

General to American Citizens registered in Northeast China.

 

SARS In Asia

 

This Public Announcement is being issued to alert Americans that the CDC has issued a travel advisory, and health alert notices, which are being

distributed at ports of entry to people returning from the three affected regions. CDC advises that people planning elective or nonessential travel to mainland China and Hong Kong; Singapore; and Hanoi, Vietnam, may wish to postpone their trips until further notice. This Public Announcement expires on June 26, 2003.

 

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization

(WHO) are tracking SARS's origin and method of transmission as well as

determining how its spread can be contained. In light of the continually evolving nature of the geographic spread of SARS, American citizens should regularly consult the CDC website

http://www.cdc.gov/ and the WHO website http://www.who.int/ for updates.

 

American citizens currently in or planning to travel to SARS-affected areas

of Asia should consult the Department of State's Fact Sheet on SARS, Public

Announcements, Travel Warnings, and Consular Information Sheets for China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Vietnam, all of which are available at the

Consular Affairs Internet web site at http://travel.state.gov. American citizens may also contact the Department of State toll-free at 1-888-407-4747, or if calling from overseas, 317-472-2328, for SARS information.

[Mick]

Owen, thanks for your detailed posting of relevant aritcles about this illness. I don't blame you for being concerned, considering your location. Although there are no confirmed cases in Shenyang, one never knows exactly what is going on sometimes. Often people are kept in the dark until it is too late. The news about HK is particularly alarming. I saw on the news this morning that an entire section of the city is being cut off from outside contact. At least one apartment building has been affected, now maybe several more.

[beishan4]

Aloha from Beijing,

This is getting scary. My vacation has just been extended by two weeks.

I have been told to wait 14 days before going back to work after i get

home. Just in case i get it on the flight back.

Myles aka Annakuen;GG

[manhattanmoon]

It is April 1 now in China. I really wish one of those scary stories ARE actually fool's day joke.

[Mick]

Aloha from Beijing,

This is getting scary.  My vacation has just been extended by two weeks.

I have been told to wait 14 days before going back to work after i get

home.  Just in case i get it on the flight back.

Myles aka Annakuen;GG

Wow! They are actually going to require you to stay out two weeks longer? I guess this thing is really starting to create major concern. Well, enjoy the time off Myles but above all, stay safe and healthy.

[tonado]

From LA Times

---------------------------------------------------------

Fear of Illness Reduces Asia Travel

Some Californians are also avoiding local ethnic enclaves, in case SARS has reached here.

 

By Mai Tran and Jia-Rui Chong

Times Staff Writers

 

April 1, 2003

 

The rapid spread of a pneumonia-like illness has prompted Californians to cancel vacation and business trips to Asia and is even causing some to avoid ethnic enclaves such as Orange County's Little Saigon out of fear that recent travelers have brought back the disease.

 

Severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, has killed dozens in China, Vietnam and other Asian countries. Added to fears of terrorism, the illness has persuaded all but the most motivated travelers to stay home, travel agents said.

 

At 5 Oceans Tours in Westminster, for example, customers are canceling flights scheduled for May and June, and weekly bookings for Asia have dropped from 100 to five, manager Cam Tsai said. "It's kind of serious when people in Hong Kong are wearing masks," Tsai said. "I wouldn't go, either."

 

One family of 26 canceled plans for an eight-day tour of China beginning May 31. Relatives from throughout the United States had bought tickets through 5 Oceans for the annual reunion that would have included visits to the Great Wall and Shanghai.

 

"We were so excited to go," said Kha Trinh, 55, of Orlando, Fla., who planned the annual family vacation six months ago. "But how can we have fun if we can't travel in comfort, we're worried and we have to wear masks?"

 

Some people figure they have little choice. George Chen, 54, of Arcadia travels every month to Guangzhou, China, where he owns a shoe company. Last week, his sister gave him a surgical mask for his travels, and he has considered canceling or delaying his next trip.

 

"Of course I'm worried," he said. "Everybody is worried. But because I have a business there, I have to go."

 

Similar fears are seen in San Francisco's large Chinese American community. Kevin Goo, a travel agent at China Travel Service USA Inc., said that about 20% of the firm's clients have canceled tours in China.

 

The World Health Organization said that through Monday, 1,622 cases of SARS have been reported worldwide, including 58 deaths, most in Asia.

 

At least 69 cases are under investigation in the United States, including seven in Los Angeles County and one in Riverside County; San Francisco Monday reported its first suspected case Monday. No one has died from the illness in this country.

 

Symptoms to Watch

 

The symptoms of SARS are fatigue, a temperature of more than 100.5 degrees, coughing and difficulty breathing. The illness is suspected only in people who have traveled in the past 10 days to a country where SARS has been reported or have been in close contact with someone who has.

 

"I've been telling people it's very common to come back from Asia with upper respiratory problems," said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of public health for Los Angeles County. "One should not assume just because you have flu-like symptoms you have SARS."

 

The Centers for Disease Control is advising people not to travel to China, Hanoi, Singapore or Hong Kong.

 

CDC officials are boarding flights and ships arriving from those areas to check passenger health. The few passengers with SARS symptoms have been isolated in hospitals until the condition can be ruled out, said Karen Hunter, a CDC spokeswoman.

 

Passengers entering the United States from affected countries are given a brochure telling them to monitor their health for at least a week. The information is in English, Vietnamese, Korean and Chinese. The brochure advises travelers who have symptoms to consult a doctor.

 

Southern California public health officials said they have not been making outreach efforts on SARS to Asian communities. Instead they are warning hospitals and physicians to watch for the illness.

 

Merchants and residents of Asian enclaves in Southern California say they see signs that people are afraid of catching the illness from returning travelers.

 

In Monterey Park, a Los Angeles County city with a large Chinese American population, many people want to buy surgical masks. Kenny Ha, manager of a Sav-On drugstore, said one or two customers a day walk in wearing the masks and that he has sold out the store's stock of 100 in two weeks.

 

Even the manager of a Monterey Park bookstore, Robert Young, is thinking of stocking surgical masks because the demand is so great. Business has been down a bit because people fear going out, he said.

 

"I should be the one who's most afraid," he said. "Lots of people come in here, and I don't know where they're from."

 

Shopping Affected

 

In Little Saigon, no cases of SARS have been reported. But fear of the disease is keeping some people away from the crowded shopping areas.

 

On most Mondays, for example, Trang Ngo would meet a friend at the Asian Garden Mall to talk, walk their babies and eat.

 

The routine was put on hold when they learned about the virus that was spreading all over Asia.

 

"We're just kind of paranoid because we don't know what to expect," said Ngo. "There are a lot of people who come out here and who knows what they might bring back. Especially for the kids, we stopped going. It's scary."

 

Ngo and her friends are not alone. "I'm staying away until there's a cure or someone tells us what's going on with this unknown illness," said Lan Nguyen, 28, of Laguna Hills. "I'm too scared."

 

Times staff writers Jeff Gottlieb and Errin Haines contributed to this report.

[tonado]

Tuesday April 1, 9:53 PM

Website hoax on killer virus triggers Hong Kong panic

By Tan Ee Lyn

 

 

HONG KONG, April 1 (Reuters) - A teenager's website hoax about the killer virus sweeping Hong Kong sparked panic food buying and hit financial markets on Tuesday, and the government said it was placing more than 200 people into isolation camps.

 

Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, reported its first three suspected cases. One official said one of the patients had died but this could not be confirmed.

 

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) has now affected almost 1,900 people in at least 12 countries, and 63 are known to have died.

 

In Hong Kong, where 685 people have been infected and 16 have died from the virus, the website hoax forced authorities to deny it would isolate the entire territory.

 

"We have no plan to declare Hong Kong an infected area. We have adequate supplies to provide the needs of Hong Kong citizens and there is no need for any panic run on food," Director of Health Margaret Chan told reporters.

 

The scare just added to the sense of dismay in the territory adjoining China's Guangdong Province, where the virus is believed to have originated four months ago.

 

As some supermarkets found frightened customers pulling canned and preserved foods from their shelves, Hong Kong medical teams hunted for the reason why over 200 people in one apartment complex in urban Kowloon had fallen ill with SARS.

 

Protected by white surgical coats, caps, masks and gloves, investigators combed through the Amoy Gardens apartments, home to almost a third of all cases in Hong Kong. Residents there were under official quarantine.

 

The government said it was evacuating more than 200 Amoy Gardens residents to special isolation camps.

 

The hoaxer had copied the format of the public internet portal of the Mingpao, one of Hong Kong's leading newspapers, and posted a message saying that the government would declare the city of seven million "an infected place".

 

The daily said it had identified the teenager responsible for the hoax. Police were investigating.

 

As the rumour spread, the Hong Kong dollar took a slight knock, and stocks fell for another day as investors calculated the loss to businesses in the tourism, airlines, property, and retail sectors.

 

PLAGUED APARTMENTS

 

Finding the cause of the Amoy outbreak is critical because it could prove or disprove a theory that the virus has mutated into an airborne plague, which could infect many more people much more quickly. Hong Kong found 75 new SARS cases on Tuesday.

 

So far, doctors believed it was only spread by contact with infected patients, through coughing, spitting, and sneezing.

 

The race to find carriers of the disease is on. Many Amoy Gardens residents had already fled their homes before the quarantine and the government is looking for them.

 

Hong Kong was also hunting passengers on Thai Airways flight TG 606 from Bangkok to Hong Kong on March 29, the latest infected flight after an 80-year-old passenger was diagnosed with SARS.

 

Controlling the disease could be a major challenge in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of some 17,000 islands and 210 million people, many of whom live in poverty in urban slums or villages with few health services.

 

But a spokesman for the World Health Organisation said it was encouraging that Indonesia appeared to have detected the disease.

 

"One way to contain the spread is to quickly identify cases. While it is bad news if it has arrived in Indonesia, it would be good news that the Indonesian authorities have identified it quickly," said Iain Simpson, a WHO spokesman.

 

With Hong Kong so badly affected by the SARS outbreak, businessmen were trying to assess the possible economic damage.

 

"If more and more housing estates are infected, this will bring Hong Kong to a standstill and our economy will definitely contract," said Alex Tang of Core Pacific-Yamaichi International.

 

"We may have to lower our estimates for corporate earnings as well," he added.

 

AIRLINES HIT

 

Malaysia has just reported a three percent drop in daily passenger arrivals at Kuala Lumpur international airport "seven days before and after" SARS was detected in the region.

 

In and around Hong Kong, airline bookings are down 20 to 30 percent, and flights have been cancelled.

 

Thai authorities said on Tuesday tourists found in public places with SARS symptoms could face a maximum of six months in jail or a fine of up to 10,000 baht ($233) or both. But they said it would be difficult to enforce the order.

 

In Singapore, the Catholic Church drained containers of holy water at church entrances and switched to giving communion wafers to the hands of worshippers, instead of on to their tongues.

 

Some medical officials have issued pleas for calm. "I can't say this often enough, the risk to the general public is extremely low," said medical officer Sheela Basrur in Toronto. Canada has reported more than 120 cases of infection.

 

The hope held out by doctors is that the virus's detailed makeup will be pinpointed shortly. Some victims have been successfully treated using antibodies in serum from recovered patients, which suggests they developed some level of immunity.

 

The World Health Organisation has now reported confirmed SARS cases in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Canada, the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Britain, France, Ireland and Italy.

[tonado]

Panic about SARS

 

------------------------------------------------------------------

Plane quarantined at San Jose airport after five people on board complain of illness symptoms

By Kim Curtis, Associated Press, 4/1/03

 

 

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- An American Airlines flight from Tokyo was detained on the tarmac at the San Jose airport Tuesday after five people on board complained of symptoms like those of the mysterious new illness spreading through Asia, health officials said.

 

Two passengers and two crew members, plus a fifth unidentified person, complained of symptoms similar to those found in severe acute respiratory syndrome, which has afflicted hundreds in Hong Kong and killed at least 64 people worldwide.

 

It was not immediately clear when the people became ill, only that they reported to the crew during the flight that they "think they may have SARS," said Joy Alexiou, a spokeswoman for the Santa Clara County Public Health Department.

 

Alexiou added that "we're pretty sure four of the five transferred from Hong Kong to Tokyo."

 

Three first-class passengers were taken to a hospital, airport spokeswoman Cathy Gaskell said. Bob and Barbara Beom of Grants Pass, Ore., said they were sitting near those passengers and they showed no signs of sickness.

 

"It's an overreaction of some sort," Bob Beom said.

 

Some passengers remained on the plane, but others were allowed to leave because health officials do not believe the disease is contagious until a person shows symptoms. They were urged to contact a doctor in case of symptoms.

 

Flight 128 from Tokyo to San Jose stopped on the tarmac short of the gate. Ambulances lined up near the plane as the 125 passengers and 14 crew members waited on board after the 10-hour flight.

 

American Airlines notified the airport that help was needed after "the captain was informed of a passenger needing medical assistance," said Todd Burke, a spokesman for the airline.

 

More than 1,600 cases of the illness have been reported so far worldwide, including 69 cases in the United States. None of the U.S. cases were fatal.

 

Last week, evidence surfaced that SARS can be caught on airplanes. Hong Kong authorities said several tourists on a China Air flight caught the disease after flying with another SARS-infected passenger.

 

Singapore Airlines said an attendant was sickened after traveling on a recent flight that carried an SARS-stricken doctor, and officials in Connecticut said a suspected case there involved a college student who had gone overseas on spring break.

 

The World Health Organization urged airlines to question passengers at check-in and refusing to board those who might have the illness.

 

Also Tuesday, Syracuse University announced it had cut short its semester-long study-abroad program in Hong Kong and called the students back home because of worries over the illness. Fifteen of the program's 31 students are enrolled at Syracuse, the rest at other schools. Authorities in Massachusetts said a baby girl adopted in China was identified Tuesday as the third suspected case there.

 

SARS usually begins with a fever of more than 100.4 Fahrenheit, sometimes with chills and headache and body aches. After two to seven days, patients may develop a cough. Other symptoms can include shortness of breath, difficulty in breathing and pneumonia.

 

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends postponing non-essential trips to mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Hanoi, Vietnam. While some SARS cases have been reported in Canada, there's no sign of widespread community spread, so CDC isn't advising against travel to or from there.

[kkimm]

This is something to think about for everybody going to GZ...a mask is a travel must now...

[vince]

I read somewhere that people in HK has made seriours progress in finding the right anti-biotics.

[beishan4]

Aloha from Beijing,

Not only has my vacation been extended by two weeks but getting

a flight home may be a problem. Flights to Honolulu from Osaka have

been cut in half and flights from Tokyo have been reduced by a third.

Myles aka Annakuen'GG

[kkimm]

Is it because of SARS or the war in middle east?

 

I read an article in WSJ calling all other countries to "isolate" and force China to take measures to prevent SARS from spreading...