New Killer Pneumonia

sunnygirl272 · Mar 16, 2003

Originally posted by baseline
GRRRRRRR......why dont my links post????? HEATHER

I will copy and paste.

i PMed you....

ucandoit · Mar 16, 2003

Gosh, my daughter just started coughing something awful last night and she had a fever! It makes you wonder about everyone who has a cough! I am taking a day off and we are going to the Dr. tomorrow! Wish us luck, she hates the Dr.-Tara

pickledpepperRN · Mar 16, 2003

Apparently people often need mechanical ventilation. Some are better while others have died

http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r030315.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/16/health/16INFE.html?pagewanted=print&position=topMarch 16, 2003

Rare Health Alert Is Issued for Mystery Illness

By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN and KEITH BRADSHER

s a mysterious respiratory illness spread to more countries, the World Health Organization yesterday issued a rare health alert, declaring the ailment "a

worldwide health threat" and urging all countries to help in seeking its cause and control.

The agency said that in the last week it had received reports of more than 150 new suspected cases of the illness, now known as Severe Acute Respiratory

Syndrome, or SARS. The syndrome has caused at least nine deaths, the last one a nurse in Hanoi. Some victims have recovered but no one has been up, around

and healthy in the past two weeks.. It apparently does not respond to antiviral and antibiotic drugs.

Reported cases have come from Canada and six countries in Asia-Hong Kong and elsewhere in China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and

Vietnam, the health organization said. There have been no reports of the illness in the United States. But yesterday, an ill passenger and two companions who

traveled from New York City were removed from a flight after it arrived in Frankfurt and put in isolation in a German hospital.

The ill passenger is a doctor from Singapore who treated one of the earliest cases there, and who flew to a medical meeting in New York City, said Dick

Thompson, a W.H.O. spokesman. The doctor may have gone to a hospital in New York-the agency is not certain which one-before flying back to

Singapore via Frankfurt with his wife and another doctor. Before boarding the flight, the doctor called a colleague in Singapore to describe his symptoms, and

the colleague notified the World Health Organization.

The cause has not been identified, and scientists do not know whether it is a virus or even an infectious agent. Although health officials have suspected avian

influenza, which has infected a small number of people sporadically in Hong Kong since 1997, laboratory tests have not detected that rare strain, known as

influenza A(H5N1). As a result, laboratory scientists are focusing on the possibility of a previously unknown infectious agent.

Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a news conference yesterday that it appeared to take direct and

sustained contact to transmit the illness from an affected individual to other people. "There is no evidence to suggest that this can be spread through brief contact

or assemblages of large numbers of people," she said.

Asked whether this might be an instance of bioterrorism, she replied, "We are keeping an open mind."

In an emergency advisory issued yesterday, the World Health Organization, an arm of the United Nations based in Geneva, said that "there is presently no

indication to restrict travel to any destination."

But Dr. Gerberding said, "We are advising persons planning nonessential or elective travel to affected areas that they may wish to postpone their trip until further

notice."

Updated information will be posted on the centers' Web site, http://www.cdc.gov/travel.

W.H.O. and American officials urged all travelers to be aware of the main signs. In addition to the breathing problems, the illness can cause a dry cough and

other flulike symptoms that are thought to develop two to seven days after exposure. They usually start with a sudden onset of high fever and go on to include

muscle aches, headache, sore throat and shortness of breath.

Standard lab tests often show low numbers of white blood cells and platelets, which help blood to clot.

The health agency said any passenger or airline crew member who developed such symptoms should immediately seek medical attention and ensure that

information about their recent travel was passed on to the health care staff. "Any traveler who develops these symptoms is advised not to undertake further travel

until they have recovered," it said.

If a passenger became ill on a flight, the agency asked airlines to alert the airport of destination and to refer any ill passengers to airport health officials.

"There are currently no indications to restrict the onward travel of well passengers, but all passengers and crew should be advised to seek medical attention if

they develop" symptoms, the agency said.

In another rare step, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention activated its emergency operations center in Atlanta, including sophisticated

communications technology, to enhance its ability to coordinate information from other countries and to investigate any suspect cases in this country.

The C.D.C. has used the operations center only twice before, for the mosquito-borne West Nile fever epidemic last year and the anthrax attacks in 2001. The

last time it issued a global health alert was in 1993, to enhance measures to control tuberculosis. W.H.O. officials said they could not recall the last time an

emergency global travel advisory was issued.

The secretary of health and human services, Tommy G. Thompson, said his department "is applying a full-court press to learn more about this outbreak and how

it might impact on the United States."

The C.D.C. and New York City health officials are now investigating the travel histories of the passengers now in a German hospital as well as one of the eight

cases suspected to be the new syndrome in Toronto and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Two hours before the plane landed, the W.H.O. notified German health officials, who had the plane moved to a separate runway where the doctor, his wife and

a colleague disembarked and were taken to a nearby hospital. German health officials advised the other passengers to monitor their health and gave them a

telephone number to call if they developed any symptoms. Officials did not release any information on his condition.

Mr. Thompson, the spokesman for the W.H.O., said the cases in Toronto involved a family who returned home after flying to Hong Kong. A woman, Kwan

Sui-chu, died shortly after her return. Five other family members who had not been to Hong Kong have since become ill; four are still in the hospital while the

fifth, Mrs. Kwan's son, Chi Kwai Tse, died on March 13, according to Toronto Public Health officials.

Toronto health officials said they were aware of two other cases in Vancouver, both people who had recently traveled to Hong Kong. C.D.C. officials are aiding

in the investigation because Mrs. Kwan's daughter, who is being treated in Toronto, had flown to Atlanta recently, Mr. Thompson said.

So far, laboratory scientists have not been able to identify a known or novel infectious agent, said Dr. David L. Heymann, a W.H.O. official.

Japanese officials said their tests showed that the influenza virus was not the cause of the illness. But Dr. Heymann said samples from more victims needed to be

tested, because it can take weeks for the immune system to produce influenza antibodies, the proteins that are formed to fight invading microbes.

"We have not ruled out influenza definitively," Dr. Heymann said.

Tests of victims' samples have found no evidence of mycoplasma or similar microbes that are the usual causes of atypical pneumonia. Additional tests have

shown no evidence of Ebola or any of the other viruses that cause hemorrhagic fevers, hanta virus and bacteria.

In Hong Kong, an American businessman died on Thursday after passing through Hong Kong and falling ill in Hanoi, where 30 doctors and other medical

personnel have fallen ill at the hospital where the businessman was initially treated.