Demnächst Reisewarnung für die USA dank SARS? - 500 Beiträge pro Seite

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Anstieg der Infizierten innerhalb von 2 Tagen um 35%.

Ob das gut für die Aktienkurse ist? Die hätten mal lieber das Geld ins Gesundheitswesen investiert, was sie im Irak verschossen haben.

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SARS challenge as great as that of bioterrorism
CDC director says as a natural disease outbreak, the illness is relevant to homeland security
By Suzanne Bohan, STAFF WRITER
BERKELEY -- Natural disease outbreaks, such as SARS, pose as formidable a challenge as bioterrorism, said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at a lecture Tuesday evening at University of California, Berkeley.
"Emerging infectious diseases threats are also very important to homeland security issues," said Gerberding, who led the CDC`s bioterrorism program before she became the agency`s director in 2002.

Gerberding joined the CDC in 1998, leaving her position as the top infectious disease specialist at San Francisco General Hospital. She received a master`s degree in public health from UC Berkeley in 1990.

Gerberding said that developing an accurate test for the infectious agent that causes SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, is essential to getting a grip on the outbreak.


Earlier Tuesday, testifying before the Senate appropriations health subcommittee, she said the CDC is receiving more than 1,500 calls a day from the public about SARS. That`s more than the CDC received at the peak of the 2001 anthrax attacks, she said.

As of Monday, there were 148 suspected SARS cases in the United States, and more than 2,600 worldwide. The number of cases in California dropped Tuesday to 36, down from 38 reported on Monday.

During the last month, three tests have been developed for coronavirus, the agent scientists believe causes SARS. But the hastily developed tests lack precision. What researchers know about the coronavirus is that it is unlike any they have seen before.

The coronavirus causes colds in humans but was never associated with other human illnesses. However, it causes mild to severe illnesses in a variety of animals, particularly young pigs, cows, dogs and cats.

The coronavirus that researchers think is behind SARS does not fit into any of the three known categories of coronavirus.

Scientists theorize that the virus changed form and jumped to humans from an animal, probably a bird. Another scenario is that the highly mutable coronavirus changed form in a human to a more virulent type.


The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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04/09/2003 - Updated 10:57 AM ET








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Singapore woman linked to 100 SARS cases
SINGAPORE (AP) — Esther Mok went to Hong Kong to shop but came home carrying a deadly flu-like virus that has since spread to more than 100 people in Singapore and killed both of her parents and her pastor.

Miraculously, she has survived.

Mok, a 26-year-old former flight attendant, was one of three original cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, to emerge in Singapore early last month.

Mok was very sick — and very contagious — when admitted to a Singapore hospital on March 1, but doctors had no idea that she was suffering from the strange form of pneumonia that had already killed dozens in China.

She had regular visits from her family and members of her church — all oblivious to the fact that they were exposing themselves to SARS.

Her father, mother and pastor have since died of SARS. Her uncle is in intensive care battling the illness. Mok`s grandmother and brother are also sick but in stable condition.

In fact, all but a handful of the 118 reported cases in Singapore have been traced to Mok, and health officials have dubbed her a SARS "super spreader."

Two other Singaporean women also traveled to Hong Kong in February and developed SARS after exposure to a Chinese doctor, Liu Jianjun, while staying at the Metropole Hotel. They have not infected others, the health ministry said.

"Esther Mok infected the whole lot of us," health minister Lim Hng Kiang said at a recent press conference.

Two other so-called super spreaders, Canadian Kwan Siu-Chiu and American Chinese businessman Johnny Chen, fell ill after a stay at the Metropole hotel and have helped spread the illness around the world. Unlike Mok, both died.

"We don`t know why some people are able to spread it so easily and some don`t," said Chew Suok Kai, health ministry`s director of epidemiology and disease control.

Experts from Atlanta`s Centers for Disease Control will be in Singapore later this week to further analyze data from SARS patients here in a bid to find out how the "super spreader" phenomenon works, Chew said.

"There are so many things we want to know about this disease but don`t know yet. One of the key things we are working on is how the super-spreader spreads," said Chew.

Mok herself has recovered and could be released from a hospital, but authorities are reluctant to let her go, fearing the media frenzy that is likely to greet her.

Like "Typhoid" Mary Mallon, who famously infected dozens of people in the New York area in the early 1900s and was forced by the government to live alone on an island, Mok is living her own modern-day exile in a hospital room networked with televisions and telephones.

Mok`s quarantine prevented her from attending the memorial services of her parents, Joseph and Helen, but she has not been alone. Mok`s sister, Rebekah, has taken a leave of absence to be with her, said Pastor Humphrey Choe of the family`s church, the Faith Assemblies of God.

"We are all praying for her and for everyone involved," said Choe, adding that the church has rallied around Mok.

Since this island nation of 4 million people first reported its SARS outbreak a month ago, it has quarantined about 1,000 people, ordering them to stay home for 10 days or risk prosecution. Nine people have died and 118 have been reported to have the illness.

"I feel sorry for her but you might wonder whether Singapore would be so badly affected had she not been in the wrong place at the wrong time," said deliveryman Gary Sivalingam.

SARS has killed over 100 and sickened over 2,600 worldwide, mostly in Asia.