12
WORLi
Tuesday, April 8, 2003
THE BATTALION
Doctors: Number of U.S. SAKS cases could be stabilizing
By Laura Meckler
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The
number of people infected by
the mysterious flu-like illness
dubbed SARS is beginning to
stabilize, giving health officials
hope that the disease may be
coming under control, a top
Bush administration official
said Monday.
The numbers continue to
creep up for severe acute respi
ratory syndrome. Worldwide,
more than 2,300 people have
been sickened, and the death toll
hit 100 on Monday. There are
now 148 U.S. cases in 30 states
with no deaths.
“I think we’ve started to sta
bilize in the number of cases.
We’re not seeing these large
jumps every day,” said Jerry
Hauer, acting assistant secretary
for public health preparedness at
the Department of Health and
Human Services. “We’re hop
ing that this lack of a rapid
growth is a true indicator that
maybe it’s slacking off a bit.”
In an interview with The
Associated Press, Hauer added
that it’s too early to declare vic
tory. “We don’t know yet
whether ... we’re through act
one of a two-act play or whether
we’re just four lines into a three-
act play.”
With China a hotbed for new
respiratory bugs, Hauer said,
U.S. officials are working to
install health officials in China
who could monitor events year
round.
He said that officials expect
to distribute a test within a week
that can definitively diagnose
the new virus. That would allow
laboratories around the nation to
easily settle whether a patient is
truly infected with SARS, or is
sick with a more common bug.
And he said officials are baf
fled as to why U.S. patients are
less sick than those in Canada,
where SARS has forced thou
sands of people in Toronto to be
quarantined and has killed 10.
“It might be that some of
these folks in Canada just got
more of the virus, were in closer
contact,” he said. “Any theory I
give you at this point in time
would just be a theory.”
Testifying before a congres
sional committee, top health
officials cautioned that things
may get worse.
“This has very quickly
become an international epi
demic,” Dr. Julie Gerberding,
director of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention,
told the Senate Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions
Committee. “We don’t know
where this is going to go. We
have to be prepared for this to
continue to spread.”
Officials believe the virus
originated in Guangdong, a
southern province of China,
where respiratory illnesses often
start and spread. Chinese offi
cials kept news of the disease
secret for months, allowing
SARS to spread before interna
tional health authorities could
begin to fight it.
Hauer hopes that will change
if international experts are sta
tioned there permanently.
“If you’ve got people on the
ground, you have a much better
sense as to what’s going on,” he
said. “I’m optimistic at this
point that we will have some
kind of presence after this is all
over.”
Just Monday, Chinese gov
ernment officials reported that
the disease had spread farther
than they initially reported.
State television reported one
SARS death each in the
provinces of Shanxi in the north,
Sichuan in the west and Hunan
in central China — the first
reported fatalities in those areas
and an indication the disease
was more widespread than pre
viously acknowledged.
He said the international
health authorities to be stationed
in China could come from the
CDC or from the CDC working
with the World Health
Organization.
Each year, the U.S. govern
ment watches China closely in
an effort to predict what strain
of flu is likely to spread around
the globe. That’s partly because
China is ahead of the United
States in its respiratory season,
partly because China has a large
SARS cases continue to rise worldwide
While still rising, the number of people infected with severe acute
respiratory syndrome, SARS, is beginning to stabilize giving health
officials hope that the outbreak may be coming under control. About
100 people have died and over 2,300 are believed to be sick.
Number of reported SARS cases 1 death*
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there have close contact with
certain animals, such as pigs
and chickens, that can spread flu
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World Health Organization’s
investigate possible animal»
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mals. The WHO experts haven
found any evidence yet to suf-
port an animal link.
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