Airports stepping up screening for SARS

HONG KONG - Airlines, airports and passengers intensified measures Friday against a deadly form of pneumonia as more cases of the mysterious disease emerged among air travelers.

Hong Kong, the city from which the disease spread to more than a dozen countries, called on all passengers from two flights to contact health authorities for immediate check ups.

The moves followed a world travel alert issued in an effort to stop the spread of the disease, which has killed more than 50 people and required the hospitalization of more than 1,400 others, mostly in Asia.

Anxiety intensified after the World Health Organization on Thursday urged the airport authorities in cities affected by the outbreak to discourage travel by any passenger who had come down with a fever within the previous 24 hours.

Airport officials should also ask passengers whether they have a cough or difficulty breathing and whether they have had contact with anyone who had the disease, the health agency said. Screening was re commended for passengers departing from the southern China province of Guangdong, Hong Kong, Hanoi, Taiwan, Singapore and Toronto, where all of the deaths have occurred.

‘‘We are going to focus on reducing the likelihood of people who are infected with SARS undertaking international travel from the areas that are infected,’’ Max Hardiman, WHO project leader for international health regulations, said at a press conference in Geneva late Thursday.

Singapore Airlines said Friday that one of its flight attendants, a woman, had likely been infected while serving a passenger who had contracted the disease, known as severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.

The company grounded the entire cabin crew of Flight SQ25 — which flew from New York to Frankfurt on March 14 — after the flight attendant became ill.

She had worked in the rear of the plane, where a Singaporean doctor, his pregnant wife and mother-in-law were seated. All three of them had symptoms of the disease, and the doctor was the first confirmed case in Europe. The three were taken off the flight in Frankfurt and quarantined at a hospital where they are recovering.

The Hong Kong search involved all passengers and crew who traveled on March 21 from Beijing to Hong Kong on Air China Flight 111 or from Hong Kong to Taipei on Cathay Pacific Flight 510.

Four passengers from Taiwan who took the two flights developed symptoms of severe acute respiratory syndrome during their stay in Beijing before returning on those flights.

It is suspected that those four people contracted the disease while in flight, from a 73-year fellow passenger on the Hong Kong-to-Beijing Air China Flight 112 on March 15. Earlier this week, the government confirmed that at least nine other passengers on board that Air China flight had contracted the disease.

Passengers in Hong Kong’s international airport took no chances on Friday, with many donning face masks and cutting short visits to the city.

‘‘This airport spread the disease worldwide, so I am not taking off my mask for a single second,’’ said Akil Ahmad, a Malaysian-based factory manager for SD Card Technologies. During his brief Hong Kong stopover on the way from Kuala Lumpur to Zhuhai in China, Ahmad kept a cloth mask firmly strapped to his face.

‘‘Singapore reacted with a strong quarantine, but Hong Kong has more cases and does not seem to be taking such strong action,’’ he said.

A spokesman for the Hong Kong airport authority said that measures already undertaken — increased disinfection of all surfaces and closure of drinking fountains — would be reinforced Saturday by obligatory health declarations for all arriving and departing passengers.

‘‘We’re doing everything we can to minimize the impact,’’ said Chris Donnolley, the airport spokesman. ‘‘We take this very seriously.’’

Acting to alleviate travelers’ concerns, China Airlines announced that all of its flight attendants would be issued with germ-proof respirators to be worn should the situation require them, the airline said in a statement.

Any passenger suspected of suffering from the disease will be segregated from other passengers and placed on a respirator, the airline said.

While inside Asia’s busiest international passenger airport, passengers traveling through Hong Kong’s airport expressed concern at passing through a venue through which the disease has been sent around the world. At least 33.4 million passengers go through the airport each year on their way to 140 destinations aboard 70 airlines.

‘‘People in the airport really looked scared today,’’ said Johann Leung, a sales clerk at the airport’s W.H. Smith bookstore. ‘‘When the shop is crowded you see people waiting outside until it empties out.’’

Recent passenger figures have not been released, but retailers and restaurants reported that the number of their customers had dropped by at least a third.

‘‘They are all staying away,’’ said William Jou, assistant manager of Maxim’s Chinese Restaurant in the departure lounge.

The practice of quarantine, as we know it, began during the fourteenth century in an effort to protect coastal cities from plague epidemics. Ships arriving in Venice from infected ports were required to sit at anchor for forty days before landing. This practice, called quarantine, was derived from the Latin word quaresma, meaning forty.

When the United States was first established, little was done to prevent the importation of infectious diseases. Protection against imported diseases was considered a local matter and handled by the colonies. While sporadic attempts were made to impose quarantine requirements, it was the continued yellow fever epidemics that led to the passage of Federal Quarantine Legislation by Congress in 1878. This legislation, while not conflicting with States' rights, paved the way for Federal involvement in quarantine activities. With the arrival of cholera from abroad in 1892, the law was reinterpreted to allow the Federal Government more authority in imposing quarantine requirements. In 1893, another act of Congress further clarified the Federal role in quarantine activities. Local quarantine stations were gradually turned over to the government as local authorities came to realize the benefits of Federal involvement. Additional facilities were built to provide better coverage, and quarantine was nationalized. By 1921, all quarantine stations were under Federal control. In 1944, with codification of the Public Health Service Act, the Federal Government's quarantine authority was clearly established for the first time.

I'm impressed, honestly, wow!

Meanwhile excuse my ignorant butt if I percieve a momentum shift towards the loss of rights as

we fight for Fatherland Security (oops, that was Hitler),
for Motherland Security (oops, that was Stalin),
for Homeland Security.

I don't like to sound pessimistic, but I don't think there's a chance of stopping SARS from spreading around the world now. It's too late. We'd just better hope it isn't as deadly as it seems to be, or that its deadliness diminishes as it spreads from one person to another.

There's no way they can distinguish the symptoms among random airline passengers from ordinary colds or flu, and presumably for the first day or two after exposure there won't be any symptoms at all.

It's unlikely that they'll be able to develop any kind of vaccine until next year at the earliest.

You nailed it.

The idea of airport screeners for SARS is ridiculous. This will just allow it to spread under a false protective umbrella (until the screeners start getting sick.) The only sane way to handle this is quarantine and isolation. Once a certain number of cases has occurred in a locale, all travel has to stop until the situation is contained. Time for an extended old fashioned bankers holiday. Better sooner than later.

"By 1921, all quarantine stations were under Federal control. In 1944, with codification of the Public Health Service Act, the Federal Government's quarantine authority was clearly established for the first time."

Thanks for the background. I had thought that quarantine laws were mostly as local matter but universal and longstanding within the U.S. I have been following these thread and keep reading again and again what appear to be "the sky is falling" comments based on percieved conflicts involving FEMA / quarantine / and civil liberties.

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