-Caveat Lector- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30294-2003Mar15.html washingtonpost.com
U.S. Monitoring Deadly Pneumonia Outbreak in Asia Reuters Saturday, March 15, 2003; 5:38 PM By Paul Simao ATLANTA (Reuters) - U.S. health officials said on Saturday they had joined a worldwide battle to stamp out a mysterious and deadly new form of pneumonia that emerged in Asia and is spreading into Europe and North America. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had alerted health authorities throughout the United States to watch for signs of severe respiratory syndrome, a virulent strain of what is known as atypical pneumonia. The Atlanta-based federal agency also has assigned eight of its scientists to assist in a global investigation by the World Health Organization, which issued a warning about the outbreak last Wednesday. More than 150 people have contracted the fast-spreading pneumonia in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Several people have died, including two members of a Canadian family who traveled to Hong Kong and an American businessman taken ill in Hanoi after visiting Shanghai. A handful of other cases have been reported in Europe and Canada, although none have been confirmed in the United States. The CDC said it was investigating reports that two people passing through Atlanta and New York may have been infected. "We are thoroughly investigating, and we will be taking aggressive steps to reach those who have traveled to the affected areas (in Asia)," Dr. Julie Gerberding, the director of the CDC, told reporters in a weekend conference call. The cause of the outbreak is unknown though it resembles a wave of pneumonia-like illnesses that caused hundreds of people to become sick in southern China's Guangdong province in mid-February. 'OPEN MIND' ON SOURCE OF DISEASE Symptoms include a fever above 100.4 Fahrenheit and respiratory problems such as coughing and shortness of breath. Many of those infected have been health care workers treating infected patients. Gerberding said there was no evidence linking the pneumonia cases to any form of influenza, including the recent emergence of "bird flu" in Hong Kong, or to a bioterrorist attack. She did, however, add that the agency was keeping an "open mind" and would not rule out any possibilities until further investigation. Top CDC officials and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson were criticized in 2001 for reacting slowly to an outbreak of deadly anthrax bacteria linked to contaminated letters sent to U.S. media organizations and politicians in the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks. Five people died from the anthrax attacks. On Saturday, Thompson said he was consulting regularly with top ranking officials from the WHO and China to determine how to prepare for the possibility of atypical pneumonia spreading to the United States. "This is a situation that is evolving very quickly," Thompson told reporters by telephone before boarding a flight at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. "We are doing everything humanly possible to learn what is causing this outbreak, how to treat patients and how to prevent the spread to others," Thompson said. U.S. health officials said it was particularly important that travelers returning from Southeast Asia alert their doctors if they developed high fevers, breathing difficulties and other symptoms of the disease. But they also recommended against using antibiotics or anti-viral drugs prophylactically against the disease, which appears to have an incubation period of between two to seven days. © 2003 Reuters Forwarded for your information. 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