2008 Woodie Awards
SARS scare
Louie Araujo
Issue date: 4/16/03 Section: News
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The growing fear of SARS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, throughout the world has made it necessary for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to advise American health care workers, students and citizens to be wary.
The Associated Press and U.S.A. TODAY reported on April 8 that the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Julie Gerbergding, was scheduled to speak on April 2 at the University of California at Berkeley about how prepared the national health system is for another terrorist attack. But instead, Gerberding's presentation was dominated by concern regarding the mysterious disease Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, the contagious virus that has spread rapidly from Asia to the United States and Canada.
Gerberding told the audience of students that for the first time a U.S. health care worker caring for a suspected SARS patient had come down with the disease, although she did not provide any further information about the stricken health care worker.
Most of Gerberding's information focused on what CDC health officials understand about SARS, which as of November 1 had infected 3, 293 people worldwide. The global death toll from infections reached 101 as of April 1.
However, the disease is spreading at such a rapid pace that CDC officials have released an update of new victims over the past week, bringing the worldwide death toll to 159 as of April 16, 2003.
The New York Times on April 11 reported that a Utah man teaching English in China died of severe acute respiratory syndrome on his way to a Hong Kong hospital on April 9, leaving a 6-year-old son who is now under observation at another Hong Kong hospital due to exhibiting flu-like symptoms.
The man, James E. Salisbury, who was 52 of Orem, Utah, taught in China for about a year. He was first admitted to a hospital in his home city, Shenzhen, across the border from Hong Kong. After 10 days doctors confirmed that Salisbury was suffering from the virus that has exploded in one month and presently has claimed 159 deaths in 22 countries, according to the World Health Organization. Both Salisbury and his son Mickey were taken by ambulance for the three-hour ride to Hong Kong.
The Associated Press and U.S.A. TODAY reported on April 8 that the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Julie Gerbergding, was scheduled to speak on April 2 at the University of California at Berkeley about how prepared the national health system is for another terrorist attack. But instead, Gerberding's presentation was dominated by concern regarding the mysterious disease Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, the contagious virus that has spread rapidly from Asia to the United States and Canada.
Gerberding told the audience of students that for the first time a U.S. health care worker caring for a suspected SARS patient had come down with the disease, although she did not provide any further information about the stricken health care worker.
Most of Gerberding's information focused on what CDC health officials understand about SARS, which as of November 1 had infected 3, 293 people worldwide. The global death toll from infections reached 101 as of April 1.
However, the disease is spreading at such a rapid pace that CDC officials have released an update of new victims over the past week, bringing the worldwide death toll to 159 as of April 16, 2003.
The New York Times on April 11 reported that a Utah man teaching English in China died of severe acute respiratory syndrome on his way to a Hong Kong hospital on April 9, leaving a 6-year-old son who is now under observation at another Hong Kong hospital due to exhibiting flu-like symptoms.
The man, James E. Salisbury, who was 52 of Orem, Utah, taught in China for about a year. He was first admitted to a hospital in his home city, Shenzhen, across the border from Hong Kong. After 10 days doctors confirmed that Salisbury was suffering from the virus that has exploded in one month and presently has claimed 159 deaths in 22 countries, according to the World Health Organization. Both Salisbury and his son Mickey were taken by ambulance for the three-hour ride to Hong Kong.
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