>From one of my ejournal services: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Update: Friday, March 28, 2003 Medscape Medical News 2003. � 2003 Medscape Craig Sterritt, Editor, Medscape Infectious Diseases
"Scientists at the University of Hong Kong announced yesterday that they have developed a diagnostic test to rapidly identify cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The researchers also announced that they had confirmed a coronavirus as the cause of SARS. Confident of their findings, the team recommended that SARS, a provisional name for the disease, be renamed "coronavirus pneumonia" or CVP. "Epidemiology: The World Health Organization (WHO) cumulative tallies of suspected SARS cases and deaths are now 1,408 and 53, respectively. These daily counts, reported on March 27, include 85 new cases and 4 new deaths compared with the previous day. Romania was added to WHO's list of affected countries today, with 3 suspected cases identified there. "The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is now reporting a total of 51 suspected U.S. cases in 21 states, up from 45 cases on March 26. "On March 26, Chinese authorities officially reported a total of 792 SARS cases and 31 deaths that occurred in 7 cities of Guangdong Province between November 16, 2002, and February 28, 2003. WHO is presently reporting a total of 806 suspected SARS cases and 34 deaths in mainland China. "Health officials in Singapore have quarantined 861 people with flu-like symptoms and have closed all schools until April 6. A total of 78 SARS cases and 2 deaths have been reported there. "More than 1,000 people were quarantined and schools were ordered closed in Hong Kong late yesterday. This followed the identification of 51 new SARS cases and a warning by a top health official that SARS was spreading among the general public. "Health officials in the U.S. and elsewhere, however, continue to stress that transmission of SARS appears to require close and prolonged contact, as among case patients and healthcare workers and case patients and family members. "Etiology: Scientists at the University of Hong Kong announced on March 27 that they have confirmed a coronavirus as the cause of SARS. The CDC announced Monday that a new coronavirus was the prime suspect in the search for the cause of SARS. Julie Gerberding, MD, director of the CDC, stated that the detected virus did not appear to be a known coronavirus. "We know from sequencing pieces of the virus DNA that it is not identical to the coronaviruses that we have seen in the past. This may very well be a new or emerging coronavirus infection, but it is very premature to assign a cause." "Diagnosis, Treatment, Outcomes: Scientists at the University of Hong Kong announced yesterday that they have developed a diagnostic test to rapidly identify SARS cases. The test is based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology. So far, test results in confirmed SARS cases have been consistently positive, while healthy controls have consistently tested negative. Another test, an immunofluorescence assay, is also in development. "In a "virtual grand rounds" on clinical features and treatment of SARS organized by WHO on Wednesday, clinicians managing SARS patients described disease features at presentation, treatment, progression, prognostic indicators, and discharge criteria. There was general consensus that no specific therapy demonstrated any particular effectiveness. According to a summary of the proceedings distributed by the ProMED email program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases, participating clinicians agreed "that a subset of SARS patients, perhaps 10 percent, decline and need mechanical assistance to breathe. These people often have other illnesses that complicate their care. In this group, mortality is high." According to the summary, however, the majority of patients show improvement in signs and symptoms at day 6 or 7." The CDC page: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/sars/ The WHO page: http://www.who.int/csr/sars/en/ Debbi __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop! http://platinum.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
