Killer Flu : World Health Org. Issues Warning
<a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/releases/2003/pr23/en/" target="_blank">http://www.who.int/mediacentre/releases/2003/pr23/en/</a>
here it is for lazy clickers:
World Health Organization issues emergency travel advisory
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Spreads Worldwide
15 March 2003 | GENEVA -- During the past week, WHO has received reports of more than 150 new suspected cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), an atypical pneumonia for which cause has not yet been determined. Reports to date have been received from Canada, China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam. Early today, an ill passenger and companions who travelled from New York, United States, and who landed in Frankfurt, Germany were removed from their flight and taken to hospital isolation.
Due to the spread of SARS to several countries in a short period of time, the World Health Organization today has issued emergency guidance for travellers and airlines.
?This syndrome, SARS, is now a worldwide health threat,? said Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director General of the World Health Organization. ?The world needs to work together to find its cause, cure the sick, and stop its spread.?
There is presently no recommendation for people to restrict travel to any destination. However in response to enquiries from governments, airlines, physicians and travellers, WHO is now offering guidance for travellers, airline crew and airlines. The exact nature of the infection is still under investigation and this guidance is based on the early information available to WHO.
TRAVELLERS INCLUDING AIRLINE CREW: All travellers should be aware of main symptoms and signs of SARS which include:
? high fever (>38oC)
AND
? one or more respiratory symptoms including cough, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing
AND one or more of the following:
? close contact* with a person who has been diagnosed with SARS
? recent history of travel to areas reporting cases of SARS.
In the unlikely event of a traveller experiencing this combination of symptoms they should seek medical attention and ensure that information about their recent travel is passed on to the health care staff. Any traveller who develops these symptoms is advised not to undertake further travel until they have recovered.
AIRLINES: Should a passenger or crew member who meets the criteria above travel on a flight, the aircraft should alert the destination airport. On arrival the sick passenger should be referred to airport health authorities for assessment and management. The aircraft passengers and crew should be informed of the person?s status as a suspect case of SARS. The passengers and crew should provide all contact details for the subsequent 14 days to the airport health authorities. There are currently no indications to restrict the onward travel of healthy passengers, but all passengers and crew should be advised to seek medical attention if they develop the symptoms highlighted above. There is currently no indication to provide passengers and crew with any medication or investigation unless they become ill.
In the absence of specific information regarding the nature of the organism causing this illness, specific measures to be applied to the aircraft cannot be recommended. As a general precaution the aircraft may be disinfected in the manner described in the WHO Guide to Hygiene and Sanitation in Aviation.
* * *
As more information has become available, WHO-recommended SARS case definitions have been revised as follows:
Suspect Case
A person presenting after 1 February 2003 with history of :
? high fever (>38oC)
AND
? one or more respiratory symptoms including cough, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing
AND one or more of the following:
? close contact* with a person who has been diagnosed with SARS
? recent history of travel to areas reporting cases of SARS
Probable Case
A suspect case with chest x-ray findings of pneumonia or Respiratory Distress Syndrome
OR
A person with an unexplained respiratory illness resulting in death, with an autopsy examination demonstrating the pathology of Respiratory Distress Syndrome without an identifiable cause.
Comments
In addition to fever and respiratory symptoms, SARS may be associated with other symptoms including: headache, muscular stiffness, loss of appetite, malaise, confusion, rash, and diarrhea.
* * *
Until more is known about the cause of these outbreaks, WHO recommends that patients with SARS be isolated with barrier nursing techniques and treated as clinically indicated. At the same time, WHO recommends that any suspect cases be reported to national health authorities.
WHO is in close communication with all national authorities and has also offered epidemiological, laboratory and clinical support. WHO is working with national authorities to ensure appropriate investigation, reporting and containment of these outbreaks.
*Close contact means having cared for, having lived with, or having had direct contact with respiratory secretions and body fluids of a person with SARS.
For more information contact:
Dick Thompson - Communication Officer
Communicable Disease Prevention, Control and Eradication
WHO, Geneva
Telephone: (+41 22) 791 26 84
Email: thompsond@who.int
here it is for lazy clickers:
World Health Organization issues emergency travel advisory
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Spreads Worldwide
15 March 2003 | GENEVA -- During the past week, WHO has received reports of more than 150 new suspected cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), an atypical pneumonia for which cause has not yet been determined. Reports to date have been received from Canada, China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam. Early today, an ill passenger and companions who travelled from New York, United States, and who landed in Frankfurt, Germany were removed from their flight and taken to hospital isolation.
Due to the spread of SARS to several countries in a short period of time, the World Health Organization today has issued emergency guidance for travellers and airlines.
?This syndrome, SARS, is now a worldwide health threat,? said Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director General of the World Health Organization. ?The world needs to work together to find its cause, cure the sick, and stop its spread.?
There is presently no recommendation for people to restrict travel to any destination. However in response to enquiries from governments, airlines, physicians and travellers, WHO is now offering guidance for travellers, airline crew and airlines. The exact nature of the infection is still under investigation and this guidance is based on the early information available to WHO.
TRAVELLERS INCLUDING AIRLINE CREW: All travellers should be aware of main symptoms and signs of SARS which include:
? high fever (>38oC)
AND
? one or more respiratory symptoms including cough, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing
AND one or more of the following:
? close contact* with a person who has been diagnosed with SARS
? recent history of travel to areas reporting cases of SARS.
In the unlikely event of a traveller experiencing this combination of symptoms they should seek medical attention and ensure that information about their recent travel is passed on to the health care staff. Any traveller who develops these symptoms is advised not to undertake further travel until they have recovered.
AIRLINES: Should a passenger or crew member who meets the criteria above travel on a flight, the aircraft should alert the destination airport. On arrival the sick passenger should be referred to airport health authorities for assessment and management. The aircraft passengers and crew should be informed of the person?s status as a suspect case of SARS. The passengers and crew should provide all contact details for the subsequent 14 days to the airport health authorities. There are currently no indications to restrict the onward travel of healthy passengers, but all passengers and crew should be advised to seek medical attention if they develop the symptoms highlighted above. There is currently no indication to provide passengers and crew with any medication or investigation unless they become ill.
In the absence of specific information regarding the nature of the organism causing this illness, specific measures to be applied to the aircraft cannot be recommended. As a general precaution the aircraft may be disinfected in the manner described in the WHO Guide to Hygiene and Sanitation in Aviation.
* * *
As more information has become available, WHO-recommended SARS case definitions have been revised as follows:
Suspect Case
A person presenting after 1 February 2003 with history of :
? high fever (>38oC)
AND
? one or more respiratory symptoms including cough, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing
AND one or more of the following:
? close contact* with a person who has been diagnosed with SARS
? recent history of travel to areas reporting cases of SARS
Probable Case
A suspect case with chest x-ray findings of pneumonia or Respiratory Distress Syndrome
OR
A person with an unexplained respiratory illness resulting in death, with an autopsy examination demonstrating the pathology of Respiratory Distress Syndrome without an identifiable cause.
Comments
In addition to fever and respiratory symptoms, SARS may be associated with other symptoms including: headache, muscular stiffness, loss of appetite, malaise, confusion, rash, and diarrhea.
* * *
Until more is known about the cause of these outbreaks, WHO recommends that patients with SARS be isolated with barrier nursing techniques and treated as clinically indicated. At the same time, WHO recommends that any suspect cases be reported to national health authorities.
WHO is in close communication with all national authorities and has also offered epidemiological, laboratory and clinical support. WHO is working with national authorities to ensure appropriate investigation, reporting and containment of these outbreaks.
*Close contact means having cared for, having lived with, or having had direct contact with respiratory secretions and body fluids of a person with SARS.
For more information contact:
Dick Thompson - Communication Officer
Communicable Disease Prevention, Control and Eradication
WHO, Geneva
Telephone: (+41 22) 791 26 84
Email: thompsond@who.int
Comments
seriously though it is scary
[quote] WHO issued the warning <hr></blockquote>
Yes.
<strong>Look no further than Fort Detrick.
No end to the anti-american comments huh? Maybe your leader Saddam did this one?
<strong>Also, why do so many disease vectors originate out of Asia? It's just a curious phenomenon. Is it the denser population perhaps?</strong><hr></blockquote>
I read once that it was the result of farming methods that keep pigs and chickens in close contact. As the bugs jump back and forth between the two species they can mutate enough to jump to humans.
Sounded plausible, anyway.
<strong>Also, why do so many disease vectors originate out of Asia? It's just a curious phenomenon. Is it the denser population perhaps?</strong><hr></blockquote>
I believe it's thought that it's a combination of dense human population and living in close proximity to fowl and pigs. The scariness level of influenza depends on its viral coat. Usually the coat just changes a little bit at a time, so that most of our immune systems have a good chance at recognizing it snuffing it out. The annual flu vaccines are based on predicting which of these little changes will predominate in the winter's flu outbreaks. But every now and then a human flu virus picks up a new coat from a pig or fowl flu virus, and is able to baffle our immune systems. I think that the huge 1919 flu outbreak was from pigs; the most recent scary flu outbreak in Hong Kong a few years ago was from chickens (led to the wholesale slaughter of every chicken on the island, IIRC).
These new flu strains can be real scary because, influenza being a virus, antibiotics obviously don't work; and we don't really have any good anti-flu antivirals. And the same changes in the viral coat that help it evade our immune systems make the current vaccines ineffective. Still, supportive care has come a long way since 1919, and if you can give your immune system enough time to adapt, it'll usually win. As long as you have a functional immune system, which is probably the real danger these days.
Very classy.
<strong>Look no further than Fort Detrick.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
Another point for you on the "A$$hole meter".
You've really lost ALL credibility here and make me sick to my stomach to think that you live in this country.
I can't wait till we have the new vBulletin here. Hopefully it'll have that nice "ignore" feature so I don't have to see you spew this bs anymore. <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[oyvey]" />
[ 03-16-2003: Message edited by: Willoughby ]</p>
perhaps she was kidding? even poking fun of her own paranoia?
who knows.
This "flu" (or whatever) seems to spread rather fast. Many of the hospital workers are getting it and they know how to be careful. It's a little spooky but so far so good.