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Bush briefed outbreak Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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Bush briefed on SARS outbreak
By Kathy A. Gambrell
UPI White House Reporter
From the Washington Politics & Policy Desk
Published 4/25/2003 4:11 PM
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WASHINGTON, April 25 (UPI) -- The White House said Friday that President George W. Bush was receiving routine briefings on the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, from government and scientific experts.
Officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Health and Human Services, along with other scientists, have been keeping the president up to date on the prevalence of the disease and how airline flights from regions reporting the illness are being tracked, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
U.S. officials are keeping a watchful eye on the spread of the disease that has infected thousands of individuals around the world. The World Health Organization has reported 4,402 cases of SARS worldwide with 263 deaths in 26 countries.
The outbreak has so alarmed public health officials that the World Health Organization has issued guidelines for those traveling to and from regions where the infection rate is greatest, such as Asia.
The surveillance of the disease has been broken out into two categories -- suspected cases and probable cases. The WHO defines a suspect case as a person who, after Feb. 1, has a history of a high fever, cough, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, close contact with a person diagnosed with SARS or a recent history of travel to areas reporting cases of SARS.
A probable case is a person with confirmed pneumonia or respiratory distress syndrome, or a person who dies of an unexplained respiratory illness where respiratory distress syndrome is found on autopsy.
In the United States, the CDC has reported 247 cases of SARS, of which 39 are probable cases. Of those 39 cases, 37 occurred in travelers to parts of the world where the SARS transmission is occurring, one occurred in a healthcare worker, and one was a household contact.
The three states reporting the most cases so far are California with 49 total, of which 35 are suspected cases and 14 are probable cases; New York with 28 total cases, of which 23 are suspected cases and five are probable cases; and Washington state with 23 total cases, of which 22 are suspected cases and one is a probable case.
SARS begins with a fever greater than 100.4 degrees. Other symptoms may include headache, an overall feeling of discomfort, and body aches. Some people also experience mild respiratory symptoms. After two to seven days, SARS patients may develop a dry cough and have trouble breathing. It is spread by close person-to-person contact.
CDC Director Julie L. Gerberding attributed the low transmission rate in the United States to a combination of vigorous medical testing, vigilance by the public health community -- and pure luck.
"The low transmission rate in the United States -- one possibility is good luck, that we haven't had the right combination of someone who's highly infectious and inadequately protected healthcare personnel. So that's certainly one factor," Gerberding said.
"I think we may also learn, as we complete the serologic and other testing of the case patients in the U.S., that many of these individuals may not have SARS at all, and that would certainly account for the lack of SARS transmission, and I would like to credit the vigilance of the public health officials in our country and the healthcare providers at the front line, who I believe, from everything I've been able to ascertain as the reports come in, have really done a great job of early detection."
Dennis Murphy, director of communications for Border and Transportation Security in the Department of Homeland Security, told United Press International that the agency was taking steps to prevent transmission of SARS across U.S. borders.
"We're making (information) fliers available at land borders and airports," Murphy said. The fliers, prepared by the CDC, inform travelers of the signs and symptoms of SARS.
Inspectors stationed at the borders and transportation security screeners have also been provided with information on the signs of the disease so they can refer travelers who appear sick to public health officials.
The CDC Web site directs transportation screeners and airport workers to separate someone who appears to have a respiratory illness from other passengers and contact the proper authorities, such as one of the eight Division of Global Migration and Quarantine stations. The stations oversee the screening of arriving international travelers for symptoms of illnesses that could endanger public health. Those stations are located at the Hartsfield, Miami, O'Hare, John F. Kennedy, Honolulu, San Francisco, Tom Bradley and Seattle-Tacoma International airports.
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