SARS Epidemic May Reemerge, CDC Director Warns

Reuters ^ | 6-18-03

[Prince Charles]

SARS Epidemic May Reemerge, CDC Director Warns

Wed June 18, 2003 03:04 PM ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Like deadly flu epidemics of the past, SARS may reemerge later this year as a global health threat, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday.

Dr. Julie Gerberding pointed out that infectious diseases like SARS and monkeypox are spread around the world by travelers or by trade in exotic animals.

"This is the new normal: emerging infectious diseases ... that create immediate global concerns because of the movement of people and animals," Gerberding said in a speech to the American Medical Association's annual meeting.

Gerberding compared SARS to flu epidemics early in the last century that appeared to subside, only to erupt again with the change of seasons and kill millions.

"The risk is not over as any moment another patient could emerge," she said.

The World Health Organization said this week the worst was over in the battle against SARS and lifted a travel warning for Taiwan, leaving Beijing as the only place with an advisory in force.

But the United Nations agency said health authorities must stay alert for fresh outbreaks of the disease that killed almost 800 people and infected about 8,500 since it emerged late last year in southern China.

Gerberding said the number of cases was "definitely dwindling" but the Northern Hemisphere's fall and winter could witness another outbreak.

"Our next priority is to develop a rapid diagnostic test," she said. "We now know there are milder forms of the illness where people may not have symptoms. What we don't know is if these people can transmit the virus."

The monkeypox outbreak in the U.S. Midwest this spring caught health authorities by surprise, she said, and showed how the movement of people and animals around the globe posed health risks. There have been roughly 80 non-fatal human cases so far traced to pet prairie dogs, with the infection traced to a Gambian rat imported from Africa.

She said no new human cases of the deadly West Nile virus appeared in the United States so far this spring, though the CDC was tracking bird and mosquito virus carriers and expected the deadly illness to reappear this summer. Last year, there were more than 4,000 human cases and 284 deaths.

[Betty Jo]

It looks as though there are two Bulgarians who came from Toronto who are/were sick/suspected SARS.

Anyway, one has six relatives who are/were under observation.

I'll try to sort out these two different patients.

Can't find any more about the trip to Pakistan.

[Betty Jo]

http://whitepages.med.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/WebPhprt?DB=csnet-pvt

It doestn work,but when you go to Harvard faculty ,and its whitepages of faculty, you come up with Henry Niman.

So, I dont know what the freeper who emailed me is talking about.

[dc-zoo]

He has a Harvard.edu email address. Should be simple enough to check that out.

[Betty Jo]

Oh, I hate/love this kind of thing.When I found the Harvard faculty White Pages, I found him,but the address is listed as the Boston Shriners Hospital.When I went there,and searched, no Niman.

I hate to email the person I am searching for.There should be some separate web hits for Niman as he relates to Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital and the Shriners Hospital in Boston.

I cant find any. They are all Nimans posts or interviews, saying he is an instructor at Harvard Medical School, biomed engineering.

I like what he says about SARS, but the freeper who says he is phony has agitated me.

So, I guess I'll email him and ask him.."hey are you the Henry Niman on agonist who posts about SARS? Are you the Henry Niman who is an instructor in bioengineering surgery at Harvard and I guess, Mass General and the Shriners Hsp?

Oooh, I hate /love this.

[Domestic Church]

Not only did scientists recently dig up some 1918 flu bugs but in a shack in Siberia they found some nice deadly plague bugs...lots of interesting pestilence possibilities.

[Domestic Church]

"So now we have secret court hearings being held, involving unknown and unnamed persons. Not good."

A harbinger of the culling.

[CobaltBlue]

I sometimes represent mentally disabled people who are being committed. These hearings always take place in the hospital setting, in a conference room. The judge and the lawyers always travel to the hospital for these hearings.

Why would anyone have a problem with this?

[CobaltBlue]

Dr. Henry Niman is indeed associated with Harvard Medical School.

[Betty Jo]

May I put in my response to your post to per loin?

A hearing for a mentally ill person does not invovle the spreading of a brand new virus around that world that has killed over 800 victims.

This hearing involves the lives of the whole world.

If this man has SARS and is released, he could infect millions.

If he does not have SARS,then is he being denied constitutional rights?

This brings up the feds and their authority to quarantine the entire country and confiscate personal belongings,yada,yada.

We are treading on new ground, and given this fed governments incompetence so far,as it relates to bio-terrorism,I think the questions of privacy are subject to our questions.

I want the whole world quarantined,but I want it done in public, with all names and agendas open.

[CobaltBlue]

Public hearings aren't necessary for due process. All that due process requires is a fair hearing. That includes the right to a lawyer, the right to notice, the right to an appeal, stuff like that.

Lots of hearings are held in closed rooms. Here in Virginia, family court matters are held in private rooms. As I mentioned, sanity hearings. Administrative hearings are commonly held in closed rooms.

[Betty Jo]

I called the Boston Shriners Hospital and the operator,after saying she didn't know that name,came up with an extension.The same number that is listed on Harvard Medical Schools Faculty White Pages.It gives his adress as the Shriners Burn Hospital in Boston, which is associated with Harvard Med School and Mass General Hosp.

So, does he teach surgery at Harvard, at Mass Gen or Shriners Burn Hosp or all three?

He is not treating any patients, since he is a Ph.D, not an M.D.

Is he in the "Bioengineering Department" at Shriners, as some articles state?

Is he the Dr. Niman talked about in articles about anthrax, or is a different Niman, Micheal the one?

As I have said, some freeper emailed me and was wondering whats up?

To me, whats up is "an instructor in surgery (bioengineering),at Harvard Med, Mass Gen and Shriners Boston
is yakking about "SARS".

Is he qualified?

I yak about SARS all the time and I know absolutely nothing.

If any freeper can lead me to an actual "paper" by Dr. Henry Niman,please do!

[Betty Jo]

You are missing the point,that point being SARS is killing victims all over the world.

There is a huge coverup going on,all over the world.

This in camera hearing will be obsessed about for a long time.

[Betty Jo]

Ok, now I really am agitated.

When you google "Niman" "anthrax",you get the first hit saying that The Great Satan is a freeper, and that his old name was Clintons a rapist. It goes on to say that TGS works in a bio lab and is the anthrax killer.

Guys, this is kinda too rich for my blood.

Such a headache.

[aristeides]

I once asked The Great Satan if he was Clinton's a Rapist.

[CobaltBlue]

Henry L Niman, PhD
>Instructor in Surgery (Bioengineering)
>Harvard Medical School
>51 Blossom Street, Room 422
>Boston, MA 02114 USA
>henry_niman@hms.harvard.edu
>617.371.4934 Office
>617.371.4950 FAX

As for the research, use this URL for the National Library of Medicine database:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi

Input term:

Niman HL

He got his Ph.D. in virology in 1977, and these days I think he's into biochips.

[Betty Jo]

The phone number and the adress is Shriners Burn Hospital in Boston.Thats where I called and got his answer machine.

So far at the site you gave me,I'v come up with very old hits 1992,1984 and 1981.

[CobaltBlue]

I hope you have more worthwhile things to worry about than whether a sick man has a hearing in a hospital setting vs. in a public courtroom where he can potentially infect hundreds of people. None of whom want to be exposed to SARS any more than you or I do.

I can imagine a parade of horribles that *could* happen but this hearing isn't one of them.

Yes, quarantine laws can be draconian. As I alluded to yesterday.

Think of the people who have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, out of the path of a hurricane. That's not at all uncommon where I am originally from (Louisiana). But the government doesn't grab their land while they are not home. And it not only saves their lives, it keeps them from looting after the storm.

[aristeides]

120 new SARS cases does not mean a new outbreak, say health officials.

[Betty Jo]

Hey, I want the whole world quarantined.If you read my first post about this you see that I said that this should be done in the hospital,not in a public courthouse.

I am trying to interface this case with the new Homeland Security law,never mind.