SARS distinctions based in symptoms

Hope Star ^ | By KEN McLEMORE, Hope Star Writer

[DeaconBenjamin]

The disclosure this week of a "probable" case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Arkansas has created a new distinction for Arkansans in dealing with a largely untreated disease - the difference between "probable" and "suspect" SARS cases.

The SARS web site of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Ga., distinguishes between the two classes in medical terms of "clinical," or symptom-based and "epidemiological," or exposure-based, criteria.

In either case of "probable" or "suspect" cases of SARS, the basic symptoms remain the same: Consistent body temperature of 100.4 degrees or greater accompanied by typical respiratory disease symptoms such as a cough, shortness of breath or other breathing difficulty.

CDC also notes that a "suspect" case of SARS meets the criteria for a "moderate" respiratory illness that has not been confirmed as unrelated to SARS by laboratory testing.

A "probable" case of SARS also meets the basic symptoms but for a "severe" respiratory illness that has not been confirmed as unrelated to SARS by laboratory testing. The distinction, according to CDC, lies in whether a patient develops pneumonia or other serious respiratory distress, in which instance the case and lab tests are compared to specific, known cases of SARS for confirmation, based upon World Health Organization case studies.

A critical factor in determining whether SARS is present also involves the potential for direct exposure to the disease, according to CDC and the Arkansas Department of Health.

Persons with a history of travel to or residence in Hong Kong; the Guandong Province of the People's Republic of China; Hanoi, Vietnam; Indonesia, the Philippine Islands; Singapore; and Toronto, Canada, are more likely to have been exposed to the disease, according to ADH.

"Close direct and sustained contact with persons with respiratory illness who have traveled to one or more of these areas" is also a key factor, according to ADH, as is close contact including "having cared for, having lived with or having had direct contact with respiratory secretions and body fluids of those individuals diagnosed with SARS."

As of May 24, CDC has confirmed 358 SARS case reports, including 293 "suspect" cases and 65 "probable" cases in the United States.

During the period between Nov. 1, 2002 and May 21, 2003, the WHO reported 7,956 SARS cases from 28 countries, including the United States, with 666 known deaths worldwide from the disease.

"The number of new cases reported in the United States has been decreasing in recent weeks," according to CDC's May 23 weekly report on the disease.

[CobaltBlue]

>>There seems to have been very little spread of SARS outside of hospital and household settings.<<

True, although it appears that "super spreaders" spread much further, like the guy in the elevator, and the person in the plane that infected people five or six rows away.

[arthurus]

I think we will not know how widespread it is until it has truly receded or until it is obviously everywhere. The information is being let out in dribbles and is always only partial.I think governments fear some sort of panic or political backlash. If, in fact, one ethnic group is more prone to this infection and more apt to succumb to it, then political correctness requires that that data must be withheld and, in order to not let it out much of the data is fudged or not reported.