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Is your chart saying 75.7% of those who have gotten sick are still in the hospital?
How many are still on respirators, or is that figure available?
If that many are still in the hospital, and SARS gets out among the general population with a high contagion rate, it will quickly overwhelm health services - including available respirators. This means the death rate will skyrocket.
Am I wrong?
Questions and Answers on Executive Order and Interim Final Rule
Q.1. What is CDC’s quarantine authority?
A.1. Title 42 United States Code Section 264 (Section 361 of the Public Health Service Act) gives the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) responsibility for preventing the introduction, transmission, and spread of communicable diseases from foreign countries into the United States and within the United States and its territories/possessions. This statute is implemented through regulations found at 42 CFR Parts 70 and 71. Under its delegated authority, the CDC is empowered to detain, medically examine, or conditionally release individuals suspected of carrying a communicable disease.
Q.2. Why was an Executive Order necessary?
A.2. Under the procedures required under the PHS Act, the list of diseases for which quarantine is authorized must first be specified in an Executive Order of the President, on recommendation of the HHS Secretary. By amending the list to include SARS, HHS is simply taking the pragmatic step of readying all options as we continue to tackle this disease.
Q.3. What does the Executive Order accomplish?
A.3. In the event a passenger infected with SARS were to arrive in the United States on board an international flight, the Executive Order provides HHS with clear legal authority to detain or isolate the non-compliant passenger and prevent the passenger from infecting others. This authority would only be used if someone posed a threat to public health and refused to cooperate with a voluntary request.
Q.4. Were any other diseases added to the list?
A.4. No, the Executive Order only added SARS to the list of communicable diseases for which isolation and/or quarantine is authorized. The other diseases: Cholera; Diphtheria; infectious Tuberculosis; Plague; Smallpox; Yellow fever; and Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers, have appeared on the list since 1983.
Q.5. Why did CDC issue a new rule?
A.5. Amending the quarantine regulations to incorporate the Executive Order by reference eliminates the unnecessary administrative delay in the future of publishing another regulation if the list needs to be changed again. These revisions also serve the dual capacity of giving HHS the flexibility to better protect the public against the increased threat of a new microbe deliberately used in a bioterrorism event.
Q.6. Why was this new rule issued without notice and comment?
A.6. This rule was issued on an interim final basis with no prior notice and comment and no delay in effective date. As of April 12, 2003, the WHO has reported 2960 cases and 119 deaths of severe pneumonia-like illness of unknown origin in a growing number of countries. Several countries, including Canada, Hong Kong SAR, and Singapore have instituted maximum health measures, including quarantine, to prevent the further spread of the disease. The CDC is currently investigating 188 suspected cases of the disease in the United States. Accordingly, appropriate public health control measures including quarantine need to be available immediately to protect against this threat.
Q.7. Have other countries taken similar steps?
A.7. Several countries, including Canada, Hong Kong SAR, and Singapore have instituted maximum health measures, including quarantine, to prevent the further spread of the disease. Ontario, Canada has taken the additional step of making SARS a reportable, virulent, communicable disease under Ontario’s Health Protection and Promotion Act. This allows Canadian public health officers to issue orders to stop infected people from engaging in activities that transmit SARS.
Q.8. Have these new quarantine powers been used yet? A.8. CDC has not compelled the isolation or quarantine of anyone for SARS. CDC routinely uses the authority of the PHS Act to monitor passengers arriving into the United States for communicable diseases.
Q.9. When was this quarantine power last used?
A.9. The last litigated case involving the involuntary quarantine of a passenger arriving into the United States occurred in 1963 and involved a suspect case of smallpox. On the other hand, CDC routinely temporarily detains incoming planes and interviews passengers for health reasons. For example, CDC temporarily detained an incoming plane and interviewed passengers in Seattle in December 2001 to verify that a report of smallpox aboard the flight was in fact a hoax.
Q.10. When does CDC intend to use these quarantine powers?
A.10. In general, HHS defers to the state and local health authorities in their primary use of their own separate quarantine powers. Based upon long experience and collaborative working relationships with our state and local partners, CDC would continue to anticipate the need to use this federal authority to actually quarantine a person only in rare situations, like events at ports of entry or in similar time-sensitive settings.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/sars/quarantineqa.htm
April 15 2003 at 06:15AM
IOL (South Africa)
Hong Kong - This city-state has registered its highest single-day death toll from the killer Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus as analysts warned that the crisis could tip Asia's worst-hit regions into recession.
Seven more people in Hong Kong were confirmed dead from SARS on Monday, bringing the total deaths to 48.
Another 40 were admitted to hospital, taking the number of cases to 1 191.
With four more fatalities reported in China, the global death toll from SARS stood at 143, with more than 3 400 confirmed or suspected cases.
Scientists are hoping to find a vaccine against the disease Singapore took a step back to normality when 200 000 pupils returned to classes on Monday.
Singapore and Hong Kong, two of the worst-affected areas, were identified by analysts as being vulnerable to recession.
"Both depend on tourism and business travellers," said economist David Cohen.
China's death toll stood at 64, with infections at 1 418 as of April 13. Canada, which reported three deaths on Saturday, had a total of 13 fatalities.
Another case in Vietnam reported on Saturday brought its death toll to five, with two fatalities recorded in Thailand and one in Malaysia.
The mayor of Beijing admitted the first case emerged six weeks ago. The revelation appeared to confirm claims that authorities were alerted to the existence of SARS in Beijing much earlier than they have acknowledged.
On Friday, the World Health Organisation added Beijing to its list of areas affected by SARS following indications that "chains of local transmission are occurring".
This put the city of 13-million on a list alongside Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Hanoi and Toronto.
In a belated attempt to allow the outside world to understand conditions in the country where SARS probably originated, China has allowed in more WHO inspection teams.
In Manila, President Gloria Arroyo said Singapore's swift and stringent measures introduced at the start of the outbreak could serve as a model.
On Sunday, Arroyo said the Philippine consulate in Hong Kong hired doctors to check any Filipino domestic workers returning home for SARS.
To stop SARS at its gates, the Saudi health ministry said it would bar the entry of visitors from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Vietnam.
Meanwhile scientists are hoping to find a vaccine against the disease, a Canadian doctor said on Monday.
Dr Marco Marra, scientific director of the Michael Smith centre in Vancouver, said researchers had worked out the genome sequence of the virus thought to be causing the illness.
"That will help us to pin down a vaccine in a very short time, a few weeks."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/893236/posts?page=4#4
TORONTO -- As Christians enter the most important week of their religious calendar, Roman Catholic leaders have ordered changes to holy communion procedures to limit the chance of infection from SARS.
And as the infection now spreads into the community at large, public health authorities are urging millions of Toronto-area residents Tuesday to stay home if they have any symptom of the disease -- from high fever to a dry cough or bad headache.
The warnings were the strongest health officials have directed at the general public since the outbreak began a month ago. Most previous advisories had been aimed at people exposed to known sources of the ailment.
"If you are feeling ill or have a fever, do not go to work, do not go to school. Do not go out into the community. Wait until your illness is sorted out, or you are feeling better," said Dr. James Young, Ontario's commissioner of public security.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/894228/posts