SARS and the USA?

That would be a rather odd route for it to take.

Your knowledge of geography and epidemiology appear to be of the same level.

Local Woman Hospitalized For SARS Symptoms

Michigan Takes Action To Prevent Spread Of Disease

Posted: 8:43 a.m. EDT April 25, 2003

Updated: 9:20 a.m. EDT April 25, 2003

A woman who was a patient at the Henry Ford Clinic in Troy is reportedly being evaluated for symptoms of the SARS virus.


SEVERE ACUTE RESPIRATORY SYNDROME
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An employee of the clinic told Local 4 that a female patient came to the clinic Thursday afternoon. The woman had recently been in Canada and did show signs of SARS symptoms, the station reported

The patient has reportedly been moved to Henry Ford Hospital in downtown Detroit. Officials would not comment on precautions being taken inside the facility or the Troy clinic to prevent the spread of the potential illness.

Another local woman was also being checked for SARS. Her fiancé, a 40-year-old Baltimore physician, flew into Detroit Metropolitan Airport last week to pick up the woman. He reportedly became ill but then continued to fly on flights through Baltimore, Toronto, Detroit and Cleveland. The man reportedly began showing signs of the virus and is currently hospitalized at Johns Hopkins Medical Center. The woman was treated at a Detroit area hospital.

The Centers for Disease Control is currently trying to contact passengers aboard the flights in which the man traveled.

Detroit Metropolitan Airport is trying to increase their efforts to contain the SARS virus. Ticket counters are supposed to be wiped down every three hours, and airplanes will be thoroughly disinfected if a passenger appears to be ill, the station reported.

Wayne County officials are calling on U.S. Congress and the CDC to stop the 130 trucks hauling Toronto trash across the border to a Michigan landfill. Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano said there is no proof that SARS can be transmitted that way, but they are being proactive and cautious.

A mandate is also expected to go into effect at the Michigan border crossing in which all officers will wear masks and hand out SARS information cards.


(Other reports to follow as disease gathers momentum)

I'm sure, New Haven, you are much concerned about other illnesses and catastrophes as well ("can soemthing like in Algeria happen to e.g. San Francisco now as well?" - Photos)

If you aren't informed enough about SARS, this should be your next aim:

Singapore Begins SARS TV Channel

It will be interesting to see where those people have been. The two locii of infection here are based on one person who was in Hong Kong. At this time, people still have to have been in specific hospitals/healthcare facilities here to have been exposed to SARS. Just being in Toronto isn't enough to expose anyone to SARS.

The garbage thing is quite funny. Earlier this week they tried to stop the garbage trucks because of Mad Cow disease. It's a real political hot potato. One municipality in Michigan bid on a contract to dispose of Toronto's garbage and won. Other municipalities object to the garbage being transported through their communities. Every couple of weeks, they come up with a reason to stop the garbage travelling through. Regrettably (for them), it is political action on their side of the border that keeps the garbage moving through.

Perhaps it is time for concerned Americans to finally put that plastic sheeting and duct tape to use, seal themselves into their homes and protect themselves from reality.

Posted 5/23/2003 9:15 PM Updated 5/23/2003 11:21 PM


Canada may return to WHO list of SARS-affected areas

TORONTO (AP) — U.S. health officials reinstated a travel alert for Toronto Friday as Canada announced a new cluster of about 20 possible SARS cases in Toronto.
The alert came as a harsh blow for Canada's largest city, which was removed from the World Health Organization's list of SARS-affected areas last week after apparently snuffing out the biggest outbreak of the illness outside of Asia.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cited possible new cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome in renewing the alert, which warns Americans to take precautions when traveling to a particular area. It stops short of the next step of advising against the trip.

The SARS outbreak in Canada is the worst outside Asia, prompting emergency rooms throughout Toronto, the site of most cases, to operate under special restrictions that limit access. Hundreds of people have been advised to go into a 10-day quarantine in case they were exposed.

At a somber evening news conference, Ontario and Toronto health officials said an apparently undiagnosed SARS case at North York Hospital may have infected health care workers, other patients and their family members on one ward in late April.

A patient transferred from the ward to St. John's Rehabilitation Hospital was considered the likely source of four more cases under investigation, they said. The five possible cases at the second hospital were announced earlier Friday.

Dr. Donald Low, a microbiologist and major figure in the city's anti-SARS efforts, said the new cluster could involve two deaths of elderly patients. If confirmed, they would increase the SARS deaths in the Toronto area to 26.

"It's been a rough day," Low said. "We're assuming the worst, that there's a likely transmission to health care workers and family members."

Asked how many possible new cases were involved, Low said: "It's so fluid right now, it's unfair to put a number on it, but I think we're talking twenties."

Ontario Health Minister Tony Clement called the situation a setback, while Dr. Colin D'Cunha, the province's commissioner of public health, said it was uncertain if all the possible cases would be confirmed as severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Toronto last reported a new SARS case on April 19.

A WHO spokesman said Friday that determining the source of the latest cases would determine if Toronto gets put back on the U.N. agency's list of SARS-affected areas.

"Nothing has changed at this point," spokesman Iain Simpson said from WHO headquarters in Geneva.

Canadian officials had lobbied hard to get Toronto off the SARS pariah list, saying its continued inclusion sent the wrong message to the world about the state of the city's outbreak, believed to be all but over.

The SARS outbreak caused economic damage in Toronto, harming the vital tourism and convention industry as Americans and others canceled plans to visit the city.

News of the possible new cases came as Canada struggled with the first North American case of mad cow disease in a decade, involving a single cow in Alberta. The United States and other countries have banned imports of Canadian beef products, which economists say could reduce Canada's economic growth.


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(USA ONLine Edition)

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2003-05-23-sars-canada_x.htm

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/politics/0503/24newsars.html


(update on cases)

New Haven

You really should become the 'USA correspondant' for that Singapur tv station!

SARS by country - WHO-report

The data, we really need from the CDC is the case load per state. If it's published, I haven't found it yet.

Here is something more serious, not so hysterical as others

Science Magazine: Special online collection: The SARS Epidemic

Thanks for the reference!

Deaths from good old reliable TB and malaria way outnumber deaths from SARS. I don't know anyone who died from any of them. Can I get back to my freecell game now, and quit worrying?

Yes!