SARS prompts added vigilance, worry over spread of infection

Doctors across the country are taking steps to help contain a virus that is continuing to create havoc in parts of Asia.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. April 28, 2003.

Washington -- Office-based physicians are being urged to take 10 seconds to help stop a pandemic and protect themselves, their co-workers and patients from severe acute respiratory syndrome.

That's about the amount of time it takes to ask patients who call or come into the office with a respiratory illness and a fever about recent trips out of the country or trips taken by family members or close associates who are also ill, noted Mark Metersky, MD, a pulmonologist and an associate professor at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.

As the SARS threat entered its second month with about 3,000 cases reported worldwide, Julie Gerberding, MD, MPH, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reported a mixed pattern among nations battling the disease. While the outbreak seemed to be slowing in the United States, Canada and Taiwan, it was still raging in Hong Kong, China and Singapore.

She cautioned the U.S. public health community to remain vigilant, reminding them that it takes only one highly transmissible case to infect many. "Now is not the time to take a deep breath and relax a little bit here."

Dr. Gerberding also reported April 14 that both the CDC and Canadian scientists had sequenced the genome of the strain of coronavirus that is believed to be causing SARS. The hope is that a rapid diagnostic test, effective treatment, or even a vaccine, could come from the breakthrough.

Until then, physicians whose patients have traveled to areas where the illness is rampant, or have been in close contact with someone who has recently returned from such an area, are being urged by the CDC to take precautions when treating them for respiratory illnesses.