UN Warns of Worldwide Threat from Killer Pneumonia

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Forum

WHO's First Global Alert in 10 Years


http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20030315/capt.1047735453.asia_pneumonia_hk107.jpg

The World Health Organization warned on Saturday of a worldwide health threat as a mystery killer pneumonia spread from east Asia to other parts of the globe.

Releasing a rare "emergency travel advisory," the United Nations health agency said an ill passenger had been taken to an isolation unit in Frankfurt, Germany, on Saturday after being removed from a plane en route from New York to Singapore.

Some 155 other passengers who had been due to change planes or stay in Frankfurt were placed in quarantine there, while the remaining 85 passengers and 20 crew on the Singapore Airlines flight continued their journey, German officials said.

A spokesman for the Geneva-based WHO said there were reports two people had died in Canada, taking the death toll to nine worldwide since the first outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), an atypical pneumonia whose cause is not yet known, was detected in China in February.

"This syndrome, SARS, is now a worldwide health threat," WHO director-general Gro Harlem Brundtland said in a statement.

Among the dead is an American businessman taken ill in Hanoi after visiting Shanghai. He died on Thursday in Hong Kong where 47 cases have been reported.

Some 40 people were being treated in Hanoi, where one nurse died on Saturday, according to local health officials. Cases have also been reported in Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said the passenger taken from the plane in Frankfurt was a Singapore doctor who had visited New York after treating some of the first suspected SARS patients in Singapore.

"If the suspicion (of pneumonia) is confirmed, the transit passengers will have to remain under observation in quarantine for seven days in order to diagnose any possible infection and prevent the disease spreading," the Social Affairs Ministry in the state of Hesse, which includes Frankfurt, said in a statement.

HIGH ATTACK RATE

WHO issued its first global alert for 10 years earlier this week because of the speed at which the disease travels and because patients are not responding to the usual treatments for pneumonia, Thompson said.

"As reports of cases are confirmed, you will see that there is a very high attack rate. When they get sick, they get very sick," he said.

"We have been doing tests for weeks now in the world's best laboratories and we still do not know whether it is a virus or bacteria," the spokesman added.

Most of the latest cases have been among hospital workers.

The first outbreak was reported in February in China's southern Guangdong province, where 305 people were infected and five people died.

Singapore and Taiwan have issued travel warnings after some cases followed trips to Hong Kong or mainland China.

It was after a visit to Hong Kong, where anxious locals have been sweeping surgical masks off pharmacy shelves, that a Canadian woman died of severe pneumonia on March 5. Her son, who did not travel with her, also fell sick and died.

In its alert, WHO said travelers and airline crews needed to be aware of the first symptoms, which include high temperature and difficulty in breathing.

It was also likely that anybody taken ill would have been in contact with a person diagnosed with the disease or who had traveled to an area where cases had been reported, the alert said.

But WHO said it was not calling for restrictions in travel to any area.

Source: Reuters

This is HOT, I just saw a report on this on MSNBC too.

A severe form of pneumonia which is spreading through Asia has struck Canada, killing a mother and her son in Toronto and hospitalizing four other family members.

The disease, known as atypical pneumonia, has also emerged in British Columbia, where one was in intensive care at a Vancouver hospital and another person has recovered, Toronto health officials said late Friday night.

The West Coast cases are related to each other but are not connected to the Toronto cases, said officials.

One of the dead and two other family members had recently returned from Hong Kong, where atypical pneumonia has been spreading, said Dr. Karim Kurji of the Ontario Health Ministry.

Toronto Public Health said Sui-chu Kwan died March 5, and her son, Chi Kwai Tse, aged 44, died March 13.

Four other family members are in Toronto hospitals, officials said.

Four other members of the family who have not been diagnosed with the disease have been told “not to go out for the time being, waiting to see if they get any symptoms,” said Barbara Yaffe, associate officer of health with Toronto Public Health.

She also said it’s impossible to tell how many people have been exposed to the family members afflicted by the disease.

“Part of the reason we’re going public is to help identify contacts because for the first individual who died, there was a funeral and there was a visitation,” Yaffe said.

“We have been working with family members to identify who may have come and they don’t necessarily have a complete list and I understand there were quite a few people,” she said.

While health officials stopped short of directly linking travel to the affected regions of Asia with the disease, they did caution that it was one factor to consider.

In Vancouver, Dr. John Blatherwick, the chief medical officer at the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, said all city hospitals had been put on alert.

“We’re spreading the word to the hospitals and telling doctors that if you see a person with an unusual pneumonia, ask them if they’ve been travelling in Asia,” Blatherwick told BCTV News on Global.

Another factor is exposure to the family of the dead.

“The public health system is following standard procedure to notify the public about the outbreak of a potential communicable disease,” Kurji said.

Ontario’s coroner was investigating one of the deaths and laboratory testing was being conducted at the provincial laboratory with additional specimens being sent to the federal laboratory in Winnipeg.

Health Canada was also notified.

Atypical pneumonia has been blamed for several deaths in Asia and caused fears of an epidemic in China in recent months.

The disease is an inflammation of the lungs caused by bacteria. It is known as “atypical” because of the symptoms that it causes, which include fever, headache, confusion and diarrhea. It can also cause a shortness of breath and muscular stiffness. Typical pneumonia, on the other hand, usually causes severe coughing and a fever.

Yaffe said that symptoms to watch out for when looking for atypical pneumonia are fever in excess of 38.5 C, muscle aches, a sore throat, coughing and any shortness of breath.

Both types of pneumonia can be treated with antibiotics.

The World Health Organization issued a global alert about the illness on Wednesday, saying that until more is known about the outbreaks, patients with atypical pneumonia who may be related to the outbreaks should be isolated.

“At the same time, WHO recommends that any suspect cases be reported to national health authorities,” the warning said.

Incidences of the disease have been reported in Hong Kong and Hanoi, Vietnam, where dozens of hospital employees have been afflicted. At least nine people in Singapore have also fallen ill.

An American businessman who lived in Shanghai died of the illness at a Hong Kong hospital on Thursday.

And in mid-February, the Chinese government reported that 305 cases of atypical pneumonia had killed five people in Guangdong province.

Since then, authorities in China have downplayed the outbreak, insisting that such illnesses are not uncommon in country’s southern region.

QUICKFACTS

Ontario Health officials say atypical pneumonia has stricken an Ontario family, killing two and sending four to Toronto hospitals. Two more people were in a Vancouver hospital, officials said. Some facts:

What it is: Inflammation of the lungs caused by bacteria.

Symptoms: Sudden fever, headache, confusion, diarrhea, cough, muscular stiffness, possibly rapid breathing or shortness of breath.

Symptoms of typical pneumonia: Cough, fever.

Caused by: Various bacteria, fungi; including legionnella pneumophile; spread by vapour or ventilation systems; chlamydia tsittaci; spread by live turkeys, parrots, pigeons.

Susceptible: The very old, very young, those with chronic disease and people with HIV.

Treatment: Most patients respond to antibiotics. Mild cases may not require medication.

Source: Canoe (Canada)

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.

Source: Reuters

City health authorities on Saturday alerted hospitals to watch for symptoms of a mysterious pneumonia believed to have afflicted a doctor from Singapore who visited New York.

The man was taken off a flight from New York to Singapore on Saturday during a stopover in Germany, and is quarantined at a Frankfurt hospital. His two travel companions also were hospitalized.

"He is a physician who cared for a patient with this illness in Singapore," said Sandra Mullin, spokeswoman for the New York City Department of Health.

During a teleconference Saturday, top U.S. health officials said more than 150 cases have been reported worldwide of the so-called severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. The doctor who passed through New York was the first suspected case in Europe.

No cases have so far been identified in the United States.

In addition to the doctor from Singapore, a man traveling from Atlanta, Ga., to Canada is "reported to have developed some respiratory symptoms," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

The two major symptoms of this pneumonia are high fever accompanied by difficulty in breathing. The potentially fatal illness is believed to spread "person to person," said Gerberding, with an incubation period of between two and seven days.

On Saturday, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, director general of the Geneva-based World Health Organization, warned that the illness is becoming "a worldwide health threat."

In New York, "we're sending out a broadcast alert to all hospitals to be on the lookout for any illness that could be suggestive of this illness," Mullin said. New York City has more than 70 hospitals.

She said New York health authorities, working with the CDC and the WHO, were in the process of investigating the details of the case involving the Singapore doctor.

He began to suffer symptoms while in New York, said Dr. Angela Wirtz, a health official in the German state of Hessen where he's being treated.

The man had attended a recent conference in New York, but it was not immediately known exactly when he was in the city, the nature of the meeting or which airline he used, Mullin said.

In any case, "those who had casual contact with someone with this illness are likely not at risk," Mullin said.

The WHO on Saturday issued emergency guidance for travelers, urging anyone who may have come in contact with someone infected to watch for symptoms such as high fever, coughing and shortness of breath. SARS also may be associated with headache, muscular stiffness, loss of appetite, confusion, rash and diarrhea.

A cluster of cases has been reported in Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.

While no formal travel restrictions are in place, U.S. health officials said travelers may wish to postpone trips to the countries at risk if the visit is not essential, Gerberding said. And health officials are preparing to issue an alert for passengers returning from countries where SARS has been reported.

In Atlanta, the CDC emergency operations center has been activated, and its staff is working round the clock responding to the outbreak. U.S. health officials are in close touch with health officials in China, where cases have been reported at least several weeks back, said Tommy Thompson, U.S. secretary of health and human services.

The CDC is also working with foreign laboratories to analyze samples from patients.

"We are doing everything humanly possible to learn what is causing this outbreak." said Thompson, speaking to the teleconference from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, before flying to Washington.

Source: AP

maybe it's a biological weapon

maybe it's a biological lifeform

the important thing to understand is that this likely involves biology.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Saturday that Americans consider delaying nonessential travel to countries affected by an outbreak of a rapidly spreading, severe form of pneumonia that does not appear to respond to treatment.

The CDC "is advising persons traveling on nonessential or elective travel to affected areas that they may wish to postpone their trips until further notice," Dr. Julie Gerberding, the agency's director, said in a rare Saturday news conference.

Cases of the form of pneumonia, dubbed severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), have been reported in Canada, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

No cases have been confirmed in the United States. But early Saturday, a doctor from Singapore on a flight home from New York was taken off a plane during a stopover in Frankfurt, Germany, after showing signs of SARS, German and New York City health officials said.

The doctor, who was in New York for a conference, had recently treated two patients in Singapore with SARS, the New York City Department of Health said. He attended the conference for only "a few hours," the department said, and had "minimal contact with others" during his two days in the city.

The physician has been hospitalized with a respiratory illness, the health department said.

Also, another person who traveled from the state of Georgia to Canada appears to have been stricken with the illness, Gerberding said.

Health authorities in New York and Georgia are attempting to trace the travelers' contacts while they were in the United States, she said.

Asked whether the outbreak could have been caused by terrorism, Gerberding said, "We have to keep an open mind." However, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, which oversees security on airlines, said, "All information at present indicates this is a public health issue unrelated to any act of terrorism."

The CDC news conference was held a few hours after the World Health Organization issued a worldwide emergency advisory containing guidance for travelers and airlines, and calling the disease "a worldwide threat." However, the WHO is not recommending people restrict travel.

During the past week, more than 150 new or suspected cases of the pneumonia have been reported, the WHO said. Nine of those people have died.

"This syndrome, SARS, is now a worldwide health threat," said Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, director general of the WHO. "The world needs to work together to find its cause, cure the sick and stop its spread."

The illness is characterized by fever higher than 101 degrees Fahrenheit [39.3 degrees Celsius] and respiratory symptoms such as shortness of breath, coughing or difficulty breathing.

Doctors are being urged to look for the illness in people who have either been in close contact with someone diagnosed with the disease or who have recently traveled to areas reporting cases of the illness.

Little benefit from medication
Neither antibiotics nor antiviral medications -- the standard weapons against pneumonia -- have proven effective, WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said.

The average incubation period between exposure to a sick person and onset of symptoms is about three days, the WHO spokesman said. The CDC put the incubation period at between two and seven days.

The cause of the disease remains a mystery. "We've run almost every flu test we can run and we don't get consistent results," Thompson said. "We get hints here and there, but right now I couldn't tell you if it's a virus or a bacteria. I just don't have any idea."

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said his agency "is applying a full-court press to learn more about this outbreak and how it might impact on the United States."

It is unclear how long it takes for the symptoms to go away or whether they go away at all, WHO's Thompson said. "Right now, nobody gets better. Some decline and stabilize for a while. Some people rapidly decline and need mechanical-assist devices to breathe."

But Gerberding of the CDC said some patients have improved.

The disease was identified in November in China's Guangdong province, where an outbreak killed five of 350 people afflicted before ending in mid-February, the WHO's Thompson said.

Hospital workers -- doctors, nurses, housekeeping staff, laboratory technicians and medical students -- appear at highest risk, he said.

The CDC has activated its emergency operations center to assist WHO in the investigation and will post recommendations on identifying and treating the illness on its Web site, Gerberding said.

The CDC also advises passengers returning from areas where SARS has been diagnosed to consult a doctor if they become sick with fever during the week after their return, she said.

Disease seems to spread like flu
Spread of whatever causes the illness appears to be person-to-person, with a number of cases in Asia being reported among health care and other hospital workers, as well as household contacts of the patients, Gerberding said.

That pattern of transmission is typical of any flu-like illness, she said, adding that health officials have no evidence that it can be spread through brief contact or among large groups of people.

In addition to the respiratory symptoms, signs of the illness can include initial rapid onset of high fever followed by muscle aches, headache and sore throat. Muscle stiffness, loss of appetite, malaise, confusion, rash and diarrhea are also common symptoms.

Early laboratory findings include low platelet and white blood cell counts.

In some cases, those symptoms are followed by pneumonia in both lungs, sometimes requiring use of a respirator.


HEALTH WARNING:

The World Health Organization alerts travelers to be aware of the symptoms, which include:

- People presenting after February 1 with a history of fever greater than 38 C (100.4 F) AND one or more respiratory symptoms including cough, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing AND One or more of the following:

- Close contact with a person who has been diagnosed with SARS. Close contact means having cared for, having lived with, or having had direct contact with respiratory secretions and body fluids of a person with SARS.
- Recent history of travel to areas reporting cases of SARS.

Probable cases are defined as:

- A person with chest x-ray findings of pneumonia or Respiratory Distress Syndrome OR
- A person with an unexplained respiratory illness resulting in death, with an autopsy examination demonstrating the pathology of Respiratory Distress Syndrome without an identifiable cause.

Source: CNN

World health experts are trying to identify what has caused a new form of deadly pneumonia called severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS. It spread first in southeast Asia and now has affected Canadians and perhaps one American who traveled to Asia.

Q: What are the symptoms?

A fever of about 101, coughing and shortness of breath. Other possible symptoms include headache, muscular stiffness, loss of appetite, confusion, rash and diarrhea.

Q: How quickly can someone get the disease after being exposed to it?
[EDIT]This should read "How quickly can one expect to show symptoms having contracted the disease after being exposed to it?"[/EDIT]

Three to seven days.

Q: How does someone catch it?

It appears to spread through close contact, such as between family members or between patient and doctor. Experts believe it is spread through coughing, sneezing and other contact with nasal fluids.

Q: What causes it?

Researchers don't know whether it is caused by a bacteria or a virus, and they may not know the answer for several more days.

Q: How is it treated?

Those suspected of having SARS are being quarantined. The best treatment is unclear because different medicines have been used in different hospitals.

Q: What are the chances of recovering from it?

So far there are nine fatalities among the 150 most recent cases.

Q: Where did the disease first appear?

SARS was first recognized in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Feb. 26. An outbreak of pneumonia of similar symptoms struck Guangdong province, China, last November and was only brought under control in mid-February.

Q: Is it dangerous to travel in those regions?

U.S. health officials said travelers should consider postponing trips to countries at risk. Those who have traveled to Hong Kong or Guangdong province in China, or Hanoi, Vietnam, are being told to monitor their health for seven days. If a fever and shortness of breath develop, they are advised to see a doctor.

Source: World Health Organization; U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Latest news report says that it appears that they are starting to sucessfully treat it now. They have people starting to respond to treatment. This doesn't mean that there isn't still a crisis.

Scientists worked Monday to identify the cause of a mysterious type of killer pneumonia that has spread from Asia to Canada and Europe via air travel.


Health ministries and airport authorities around the globe were on high alert as Hong Kong's Health Minister Yeoh Eng-kiong announced the number of people infected with the illness there had nearly doubled.


Although he said it was too early to talk of an epidemic, he confirmed that nearly 100 people in Hong Kong, most of them medical staff, had fallen ill.


Hours later Britain reported its first suspected case.


The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued a global health alert, the first in a decade, about the unusual strain, which does not respond to treatment and has no known cause.


Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is believed to have killed nine people and infected more than 170 others. It is not clear if it is caused by a virus, a bacterium or a new pathogen.


"The reason for issuing this alert is that this is an illness caused by something we can't identify," Iain Simpson of WHO said.


"Something is making these people sick. We can identify some of the symptoms they have but we cannot identify the cause at the moment.


"We are working flat out to do it, but until we do people around the world need to watch out for these cases," he told Reuters.


Governments have warned people against unnecessary travel to China, Hong Kong and Vietnam, where most cases have occurred.


Seven people in Canada have been infected and two have died. All those affected in North America and Europe had recently visited Southeast Asia or had a relative who had.


Travelers arriving in Hong Kong have been seen wearing surgical masks, and airport officials in the Philippines said anti-viral agents were being sprayed inside aircraft.


People in Vietnam, which has reported 50 cases and one death, are stocking up on medicines and masks.


CHINESE CONNECTION


In Geneva, where two people are in isolation with typical symptoms like breathing difficulties, high fever, chills and dry cough, the WHO said it would work with Chinese health authorities to determine the cause of the illness.


WHO experts suspect the first case of SARS appeared in China's southern Guangdong province where 305 people became ill and five died.


"With four months of meticulously obtained information from China, we believe we will have the answers to how this disease acts in populations and how we can best deal with it," said David Heymann, head of the WHO communicable diseases section.

In Italy, four people who arrived on a Singapore Airlines flight were under observation and airports in the country were on high alert, but no cases have been reported.

During the weekend, a Singapore doctor was taken off a plane in Frankfurt after displaying symptoms. He had earlier treated patients with the disease in Singapore, where more than 20 people are now infected.

Scientists have been on heightened alert for the next influenza pandemic, which many believe is already overdue. The WHO alert has heightened fears of an outbreak on the scale of the worst influenza epidemic in the last century that killed more than 20 million people.

"People are looking for the next influenza pandemic. That is true. But none of the tests that have been done so far has shown that this (SARS) is caused by influenza," Simpson said.

Although cases of SARS are increasing, it is not spreading with the speed of an influenza epidemic and most cases are either directly or indirectly linked to hospitals.

"This isn't something that is spreading in large numbers around the world at this point. What we are working to do is to identify what it is and identify what we can do about it before it does spread further," Simpson added.

Influenza is caused by a virus and spread from person to person through droplets of moisture in the air exhaled by infected people.

Pneumonia is a lung infection which is usually bacterial but can be viral. SARS is atypical because it produces a dry, not wet cough, and does not have the all the symptoms of regular pneumonia.

"It is possible that this is a new disease. We can't rule that out but we can't say it for certain," Simpson said. "That is one of the reasons we issued this alert."

Source: Reuters

"It seems quite serious. It's a risk not worth taking," said Taiwan resident Cheng Mei-Chin, who canceled a trip to Shanghai via Hong Kong after her daughter raised objections.

Singapore's Ministry of Health said two more patients had been diagnosed with the highly contagious strain, bringing the number of people afflicted with the severe respiratory syndrome there to 23.

But in Vietnam, hospital officials said an outbreak that had killed a nurse and infected nearly 60 others there appeared to have been contained, though at least four patients remained in critical condition.

The Vietnam-France Hospital where the outbreak occurred several weeks ago appealed for volunteers, particularly nurses, to relieve exhausted staff.

"We need more staff on the medical side, for the cleaning, in the kitchens...the ones who are on the spot are extremely tired, physically and mentally tired because it's not always easy," Lucien Blanchard, general manager of the hospital, told Reuters.

China has reported 305 infections, and there are now more than 200 infected in other parts of the world. Experts believe the number will rise, but they say it is not yet clear whether all the cases are related.

Germany reported four new suspected cases on Monday, and the United States said it was watching 14 suspect cases, although officials doubted any were related to the outbreak. Britain also reported its first suspected cases.

This really is a very serious issue and deserves as much air time on tv as does the Iraq war. In fact, this scares me more then Saddam does. I hope our Government gives this issue as much attention as the war because this could kill a LOT more people then the war does.

The global epidemic continues to expand. Today, WHO is reporting 1,491 cases and 54 deaths, plus the 62 cases that we are reporting here in the United States

Not to get technical on anyone but being a biology student gives me some perspective on the issue. I would like to say that it is totally possible that this is due to someone not finishing or even incorrectly taking their anti biotics. Because of this and the use of anti biotics in the meat industry we have created mass amounts of bacteria that are resistant to our antibiotics. Because of this we in the future will see more and more cases of this kind where we dont know the cure or solution. Could this be just the first wave? Many people agree that we could soon be equivilant to a time like the 1600's where all these bacterial diseases were killing people, and becuase of this we need to create more anti biotics or more importantly just not take them and if taking them take them correctly and finish the prescription because when you dont finish a prescription you can be harvesting anti-biotic resistant bacteria.
scares me too.

Stay in your own backyard, then you can only get West Nile Virus, that is if you live in the South. This virus killed alot of people last summer here in La. Nobody freaked like they are over SARS. Maybe thats because we are dumb trailor livin rednecks
Delta

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Hallo. your board calls me a rockie. LOL
I am in the 'epicentre' you know, north york generaL , york -central
Check out baliSOS,,icq with certain people there will fill you in.
Oh, well , it's happening right in your beautifull california. Why wouldn't it,all those flights and to keep records straight, I am not against orientals, I am against flights back and forth for those people who value the buck more than health.
Can you please fill me in about the 2 hospitals in california , where nurses are scared to talk?
Please. don't see my post as coming from somebody who knows better.
I don't know better. Iam darn scared.
I would like some regional input to understand ,if it can be contained , if we all talk nonsense while it's here already.
Looking forward to your reply.
Serena

Screening atairports? Give me a break!