Cold-and-flu season confusion: Bracing for SARS -- and false alarms

Some physicians say differentiating this emerging infection from regular coughs and colds could take a great deal of time and resources.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. Oct. 6, 2003.

Physicians around the world are sounding the alarm about the great burden that severe acute respiratory syndrome may have on the health care system this fall.

"We look to the upcoming flu season with anxiety," said Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, former director-general of the World Health Organization, at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in Chicago last month.

Her sentiments were echoed by many others. And the reason why is clear. Traditional respiratory illnesses will crop up in the next months, as they do every year. But the newfound awareness and threat of SARS will make treating patients who present with these usual flu-season symptoms more complicated. Physicians will face the challenge of distinguishing garden-variety respiratory illnesses from SARS -- whether the ailment returns or not. The task may be expensive, time-consuming and even chaotic as the various viruses and bacteria that cause the aches, pains, fevers and chills are sorted out.

"It's going to be tough," said Susan Balter, MD, an infectious disease specialist from River Forest, Ill., who attended the meeting. "You can't be putting everyone in isolation over the long haul."

The situation is foreboding because, as yet, there is no rapid point-of-care test for the coronavirus that causes SARS. Currently available tests do not confirm the presence of the virus until at least 10 days or more have passed -- time that allows the virus to spread because health care workers may not know to take greater precautions. It is also a long time to quarantine patients waiting to see if they are infected.