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Taiwan's new SARS case raise questions about procedures at labs Two colleagues of infected scientist now in U.S. Song Yeon-Jae / AP A thermal camera checks the temperature of passengers from China arriving Wednesday at Inchon International Airport in South Korea. Taiwan has reported a new SARS case. TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwan's first SARS case in five months raised serious questions Wednesday about how carefully laboratories are handling the virus. The infected scientist ignored safety guidelines and waited six days before going to a hospital -- even though he had a fever. Fears about the virus increased Thursday as Taiwanese...

Sudden death raises SARS fear Published: December 18, 2003 By MATTHEW D. LaPLANTE Of the News-Register A McMinnville woman's sudden death at Willamette Valley Medical Center, following a trip to China, has state and local health officials investigating the possibility of SARS. However, the same officials say the likelihood of the disease is slim. "We are considering SARS testing. We are having discussion with people trying to make sure they know this has crossed our minds," said Paul Cieslak, manager of the state Department of Human Services' communicable disease program. "But right now, it's so very unlikely." Cieslak said the...

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 8 — As the health officer of Alameda County, Dr. Anthony Iton is prepared to make tough choices if SARS re-emerges this winter or spring, as many infectious disease experts fear. The county, just across the bay from here, has identified two large buildings where, if voluntary steps to quell an epidemic were to fail, the authorities could sequester not just people who were sick but also people who might have been exposed to the SARS virus, Dr. Iton said. The buildings, he said, could house up to 100 people and could be guarded to keep anyone...

<p>July 11 (Bloomberg) -- Nine residents of an Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas, have been quarantined because they are suspected of having severe acute respiratory syndrome.</p> <p>The first case was reported on Tuesday. Some of the people had symptoms of a flu-like or respiratory illness after traveling through a Toronto airport, said David May, a spokesman for Dyess Air Force Base.</p>

Cross-border SARS scare But there's little danger that Texans quarantined after London's air show have the disease, health officials say. RANDY RICHMOND, AND MARISSA NELSON, Free Press Reporters 2003-07-12 03:46:06 A SARS scare boomer-anged from Texas to Ontario yesterday after a group of U.S airmen were isolated on their return from working at London's air show. Officials scrambled to contain the damage to Ontario's image -- already reeling from 39 SARS deaths this year and a plunge in tourism. "It taints the whole province," said John Winston, Tourism London general manager. "It is the perception that is the most difficult...

LANCASTER - A female patient suspected of displaying symptoms of severe acute respiratory syndrome while at Antelope Valley Hospital has been released and is believed to be leaving the country, a physician said Friday. The woman is one of 22 people in Los Angeles County who meet the criteria for being either "probable" or "suspected" SARS victims, said Dr. David Dassey, deputy chief of the county's Acute Communicable Disease Control Unit. The woman was under hospital observation for SARS for several days, from about July 3 to about July 7, Dassey said. No new cases have been reported to the...

ABILENE, Texas— Nine people in the Abilene area are quarantined at home as a precaution for the SARS virus, officials said Thursday. A group of military personnel passed through the Toronto Airport recently, and some reported mild to moderate respiratory problems earlier this week after returning to Texas, said Capt. David May of Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene. None have been hospitalized, he said. Only one person fits the definition of being a suspect case of SARS, but the entire group and some people they've come in contact with are now under quarantine, nine people in all, May said....

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...

TORONTO -- Test results on a man who died at an Oshawa hospital early this month show evidence he may have been infected with SARS. But officials said yesterday it was too soon to suggest SARS had spread to another hospital in the region because testing of specimens produced conflicting findings. If it turns out this is a case of severe acute respiratory syndrome, it will raise many questions about how the man contracted the disease. He was known to have been in close proximity to two SARS patients at the hospital, but died too soon after contact for them...

GENEVA - The World Health Organization (news - web sites) on Friday downgraded its assessment of SARS (news - web sites)-prevention efforts in Canada after a U.S. visitor to Toronto returned home with the virus. But the U.N. agency said it had no plans to issue another travel advisory for the city. WHO officials also dropped some parts of China from its list of places under the SARS travel warning but retained its advice that people avoid nonessential travel to Beijing and Taiwan. On Saturday, Taiwan reported two SARS deaths, breaking a period of 16 successive days without new fatalities....

<p>CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- One of two patients being monitored in the Triangle for possible exposure to SARS died Friday. Preliminary tests from the Centers for Disease Control were negative. Meanwhile, dozens of people in the Triangle are under quarantine for possible exposure to SARS.</p>

Toronto — The World Health Organization has criticized Canadian health authorities for failing to notify people properly that they may have been exposed to SARS. A senior United Nations official also raised questions yesterday about how well provincial and federal authorities are working together to tackle the virus. Canadian officials say the criticisms are unfounded. But the WHO is still downgrading Toronto on its list of areas of local transmission today to a so-called Level C status, Health Canada said. This means that health officials in Toronto are not doing a good enough job, according to WHO, of tracing people...

Toronto's most notorious export, may have spread in this tightly knit university town. With one confirmed case of SARS in its midst, employees at a University of North Carolina support building learned yesterday two more of their colleagues are in isolation and suffering from respiratory illness. The news heightened anxiety among the town's residents. "We are very highly concerned," North Carolina state epidemiologist Dr. Jeffrey Engel said in an interview. "That concern will last until we can determine whether there have been secondary infections in this case." Pete Reinhardt, director of health and safety at UNC, said the two show...

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (news - web sites) may renew a warning against travel to Toronto if a feared upsurge in SARS (news - web sites) was confirmed in Canada's largest city and business capital, a WHO spokesman said on Wednesday. But there was "nothing automatic" about issuing a call to avoid unnecessary travel to Toronto, even if the suspected outbreak could push it further above some WHO trigger points for such alerts, spokesman Iain Simpson added. Canadian health officials said on Tuesday they were investigating 12 pneumonia patients at a Toronto clinic who had developed symptoms...

Flight quarantined after passengers complain of SARS-like symptoms A regularly scheduled American Eagle flight from Dallas to Wichita was quarantined shortly before noon today at Mid Continent Airport when an elderly passenger on the plane complained of symptoms consistent with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. City spokeswoman LaTricia Harper said three of the 42 passengers on the plane had spent three weeks in Hanoi, Vietnam and that during the flight, one of the three developed a severe, hacking cough which is a symptom of SARS. All three passengers, however, were rushed from the plane to a local hospital while the other...

D'Cunha wonders why U.S. has such low SARS numbersPuzzled by lack of American deathsHealth Canada looks for answers OTTAWA &#8212; Ontario's chief medical officer of health is raising questions about the credibility of American SARS statistics and has asked Health Canada to seek clarification. Dr. Colin D'Cunha said he's puzzled by the low number of reported SARS cases in the United States, and the fact that no deaths have been reported. "There are cities in the U.S. that are large gateways to Asia and Hong Kong and, yes, we have good health systems and we can catch people but I'm...

Canada Faces SARS Questions With Possible New Toronto Cluster, Link to North Carolina Case The Associated Press TORONTO June 10 — Health authorities in Canada's biggest city scrambled Tuesday to explain possible new SARS cases at one hospital and how a recent visitor from the United States came down with the illness after returning home. The 15 patients showing symptoms of severe acute respiratory syndrome at a hospital outside Toronto, and the U.S. man with SARS under quarantine at his home near Raleigh, N.C., renewed fears that the World Health Organization could impose another travel warning for the city. At...

CTV.ca News Staff There is more bad news this morning for Canada in the battle against SARS. U.S. officials have confirmed that Toronto has exported a case of the pneumonia-like illness to North Carolina. The 47-year-old man developed a fever and pneumonia after visiting the city. While he did visit a patient in a health care facility, exactly how he contracted SARS is a mystery. The man visited the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care in north Toronto on May 16 and 17. Two people who shared the room with the person he visited came down with SARS, but five to...

Jun. 9, 2003. 10:23 PM U.S. man who visited Toronto has SARS FROM CANADIAN PRESS U.S. officials confirmed today that Toronto has exported a case of SARS to the United States. To make matters worse, figuring out how the man caught the disease in the first place is stumping local SARS experts. The man, a 47-year-old from North Carolina, developed fever and pneumonia late last month after a stay in Toronto during which he visited a patient in a health-care facility. Two people who shared the room with the person he visited came down with SARS - but only several...

<p>Doctors, scientists and public health officials across the nation went into overdrive within hours of the World Health Organization's first global alert on SARS, the deadly new virus from Asia. The word went out over phone trees, blast faxes, BlackBerry alerts, e-mail. And inside 24 hours, the U.S. public health system stood ready to tackle SARS — severe acute respiratory syndrome — as it became the world's latest "emerging disease."</p>