U.S. officials say SARS can be contained
| • | O'ahu woman may have SARS |
By Vicki Kemper
Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON — The government's top scientists expressed cautious confidence yesterday in their ability to control the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome in the United States, even as SARS cases worldwide climbed above 2,600.
Associated Press
Joined via satellite by a top official of the World Health Organization, the scientists told a Senate committee that "extraordinary" cooperation among health agencies has slowed the epidemic and boosted efforts to prevent and treat the disease.
An airtight containment unit was unloaded from an ambulance in Tokyo yesterday. The city government announced the measure for people suspected of being infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome, which has killed at least 100 people.
"The world has responded as we hoped it would," the organization's Dr. David L. Heymann said from Geneva. "We believe we will be able to contain the epidemic."
The overwhelming response is due, at least in part, to health agencies' efforts to prepare for possible bioterror attacks, the officials said.
"Two years ago, I don't think we could have done this," said Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Yet the battle to contain SARS is far from over, the officials said. "We're still in an evolving epidemic, so it is folly to predict where it's going to go," said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
"We can be hopeful," Gerberding added, "but we need to be prepared for the worst."
Key to such preparation, Gerberding said, is preventing the disease's spread by limiting unnecessary travel to Asia, where SARS originated, and identifying cases as quickly as possible.
When committee Chairman Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., held up a blue and white surgical mask and asked about its role in SARS prevention, Gerberding promoted what she said is a far more effective tool: the small yellow "health alert notice" given to airline passengers arriving from China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam.
Federal health agencies have distributed more than 300,000 of the notices, which tell passengers in six languages that their travel may have exposed them to SARS.
The notice advises travelers to monitor their health for at least 10 days, watching for fever with a cough or difficulty breathing, and to see a doctor immediately if such symptoms develop.
So far, 148 suspected SARS cases have been identified in the United States, most of them relatively mild, Gerberding said. Half the patients have developed pneumonia, and none has died.
Scientists at 11 laboratories around the world are collaborating on efforts to identify the new coronavirus that causes the disease, which is believed to have spread from animals in China's Guangdong province.
