Mystery Illness Suspected In NYC
Federal authorities nationwide are monitoring some 50 suspected case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the so-called mystery illness first spotted in Asia last month.
The Centers for Disease Control says five of those cases are in New York City, where four or the five were treated at local hospitals and released.
Dr. Michael Phillips, an epidemiologist for the New York City Health Department, says the fifth patient remains hospitalized but is in good condition.
There have been no deaths from SARS in the U.S. and New York City officials say there is no evidence at this time of SARS transmission in the city.
The New York victims, whose names and ages were not released, all began exhibiting flu-like symptoms after visiting Hong Kong or China's Guangdong province, which had a suspected SARS outbreak in November that sickened 300 people and killed five.
Worldwide, 1,408 people have fallen ill with SARS and 53 have died, according to the World Health Organization. Most of the cases were reported in Asia.
Health officials in Hong Kong said the global spread of the illness appears to have started with a professor who stayed at a Hong Kong hotel. He was from the Guangdong province in China.
Health officials said the other guests who caught the disease then carried it to a Hong Kong hospital, Vietnam, Singapore and Canada.
Scientists are zeroing in on the cause of the illness, which several labs report is a new type of coronavirus. That virus is second only to rhinovirus as the cause of the common cold.
However, there is some evidence that a second germ, the paramyxovirus, could also be at play, perhaps in tandem with the coronavirus, WHO experts said.
Friday, the State Department issued a warning urging U.S. citizens traveling or living abroad to familiarize themselves with the symptoms and risk factors for SARS.
The illness has prompted major quarantines and hospital and school closings in Hanoi, Vietnam, and Hong Kong, as the disease spread to health care workers.
Other places affected include Singapore, Canada, the United States, Thailand, Germany and Switzerland.
Canada began screening all passengers at airports for SARS symptoms to try to limit the spread of the outbreak. Its province of Ontario declared SARS to be a health emergency Friday, after three deaths and more than 50 illnesses were blamed on the disease.
The Geneva-based World Health Organization is urging airlines to screen possible SARS carriers at check-in and to refuse to let people board if they might have the illness.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people who have become sick since Feb. 1 may have SARS if they suffer from all three of the following: