Orange County Issues SARS Alert (Florida)

WESH.COM ^ | April 24, 2003 | WESH.COM

[jgrubbs]

Orange County Issues SARS Alert Travel Advisory Planned For Toronto

POSTED: 6:02 p.m. EDT April 24, 2003 UPDATED: 6:24 p.m. EDT April 24, 2003

Officials in Orange County issued a health alert for severe acute respiratory syndrome Thursday afternoon.

There's a probable case of SARS in isolation at an Orange County hospital, according to WESH NewsChannel 2 health reporter Dr. Todd Husty.

Although the case is not confirmed, health officials said they must take it seriously to protect the public. They're reportedly looking at every person the patient had contact with in the community.

Meanwhile, Toronto is the latest city to be placed on a travel advisory by the World Health Organization. Officials with the Orange County Health Department told WESH NewsChannel 2 that every person leaving Toronto will be checked for symptoms of SARS starting Friday.

Those symptoms include a fever of 100.4 or above, a dry cough, and difficulty breathing.

[rwfromkansas]

If we can stop one it helps buy some time to slow the spread.

[JustAnAmerican]

"No it wouldn't be physically impossible to ban flights from effected areas, it would just be incredibly STUPID. The list of effected areas is HUGE and INCLUDES AMERICA. I'm suggesting that panic stricken doom criers demanding the government do the impossible are idiots.

Tell ya what I am going to do, in two weeks time I will come back to this thread. If in that time the cases of SARS have hardly grown at all, both in the US and abroad I will recind my statements. If however cases have increased substantually not only will you get an earfull from me, I will make it a point to quote what you have said in reguards to quarantine.

[discostu]

No, I was telling you that during the Black Plague nobody knew how it worked. You asked what their excuse was, I told you. But now that you mention it we DON'T know the ins and outs of SARS yet, at least that's what EVERY ORGANIZATION INVESTIGATING IT says. Or maybe you yourself have knowledge they're not giving us. Congratulations, you're spread panic for no good reason.

[GOPJ]

Is immunity gained after SARS? If not, the second time wcould pull higher than 5%...

If the common cold had a death rate of 5% how many people would there be still alive today?

[discostu]

I will NOT excuse you for demanding the government do the impossible. Why ban all flights from the orient SARS IS ALREADY HERE, IT'S TOO LATE. You'd waste a lot of money and accomplish ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Just because you have good intentions doesn't make your idea worth the bits it took to print it.

[discostu]

Tell you what I'm going to do, I'm going to point out AGAIN that SARS IS ALREADY HERE and any attempt to block it at the border is closing the barndoor after the cows have already left. The growth rate is meaningless, IT'S HERE. Stopping people at the border, especially when we don't even have a decent test for it, is COMPLETELY POINTLESS. Hell even if you could magically seal the border from all entrants, IT'S TOO LATE. SARS is here. It will now spread locally. It's a done deal. Go ahead and quote what I've said in regards to quarantine, the more cases there are the more I'm proven right, because the more carriers there must be now and the more impossible it would be to quarantine them. Welcome to germ theory, once you detect a disease it's already to late to stop it from spreading. The genie has to be out of the bottle before you find out there's a genie.

[Lijahsbubbe]

Exactly. Why help it along? Especially since the medical community has not been able to pin down how this thing acts, or how it is spread. It seems to be changing and doing different things in different countries.

[razorback-bert]

ORANGE COUNTY. Orange County (K-23) is in the Central Prairie region of southeastern Texas. The Sabine River on the east forms a natural border between it and the state of Louisiana, and the Neches River forms its south and west boundary. The county seat, Orange, is at 30°05' north latitude and 93°44' west longitude, twenty-four miles east of Beaumont and 288 miles southeast of Dallas. Orange County comprises 362 square miles of two ecological zones; the Gulf prairies and marshes in the southeastern half of the county and the Piney Woods in northwest half of county.

[rwfromkansas]

They act like because it is here, there is no point in trying to slow the spread. If no more infected folks come here, it will not spread as fast than if 100 more come and start spreading it in different parts of the country in addition to the areas that already have it.

No, we can't stop it now by stopping all flights. But it sure as heck would help slow it down.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

The disquieting point with SARS is that young, healthy people are succumbing to an illness with no history nor cure.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

FYI...

[forewarning]

generic_SARS_debunker:

137 Americans die every day in the US from pneumonia. How many from SARS?

per loin:

Since November 16 worldwide SARS cases have increased by over 440,000%. How much have pneumonia cases increased?

A good answer to a recurring question.

[DBtoo]

If this thing hits the southern areas of Africa where HIV/AIDS is so widespread, those people are goners.

[RottiBiz]

Officials in Orange County issued a health alert for severe acute respiratory syndrome Thursday afternoon.

There's a probable case of SARS in isolation at an Orange County hospital, according to WESH NewsChannel 2 health reporter Dr. Todd Husty.

Orange County, FL = Orlando, FL

Orlando, FL = Disney World

[greasepaint]

Are there any airlines that offer a non-Sars
option for seating?, I realize that Sars is only
5% fatal, but I would rather not take that chance.

[TaxRelief]

137 Americans die every day in the US from pneumonia. How many from SARS?

Oceanview's point is a good one. When people overreact to something less virulent than other already established issues, tax dollars and foundation dollars often get diverted away from more worthy causes. The breast cancer situation is a great example. A disproportionally huge amount of money has been spent researching and screening for breast cancer despite the fact that significantly fewer women are affected by it than by other cancers and heart disease.

This is supposed to be a conservative forum. Freepers theoretically believe that all spending issues should be approached cautiously. I have watched these SARS threads since the first, and have seen the same liberal mantras that are over in DU: Government must do something, government must protect us, government must allocate taxpayer dollars.

[jgrubbs]

Officials with the Orange County Health Department told WESH NewsChannel 2 that every person leaving Toronto will be checked for symptoms of SARS starting Friday.

If they can check every person leaving Toronto, then they need to start checking every person leaving Hong Kong.