- WASHINGTON (Reuters Health)
- American health officials said Wednesday that they are stepping up their
efforts to stem the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)
in the U.S. and to uncover the roots of the disease in China.
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- Meanwhile, officials eased their criticism of the Chinese
government, which has drawn fire for delaying efforts to investigate the
spread of the illness in their country.
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- Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson
told lawmakers that the U.S. has expanded surveillance activities at airports
servicing Asia, where most of SARS cases have occurred. The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is now screening for the disease at
22 airports, up from 8 a few days ago, he said.
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- The government is also planning to show a film on flights
from Asia to warn passengers to monitor their health for SARS symptoms
10 days after the flight and to see a doctor immediately if signs surface.
"We're filming it today," Thompson told members of the House
Government Reform Committee.
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- He also said that researchers at CDC and the National
Institutes of Health were working on three separate SARS tests and that
officials would try to clear them through the Food and Drug Administration
as soon as possible.
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- It was the second time this week that Bush Administration
health officials appeared on Capitol Hill to update Congress on the illness.
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- As of Wednesday, SARS has been diagnosed in 2,722 people
and has killed 106 worldwide, mostly in Southeast Asia. American officials
now report 154 suspected cases in the U.S., none of which has been fatal.
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- Thompson said that CDC scientists are now "99.9%
sure" that SARS is caused by a coronavirus, a family of viruses that
is a common cause of colds. Researchers are still unsure why the SARS pathogen
can cause such severe illness in people.
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- CDC scientists have now joined a team from the World
Health Organization in China's Guangdong province, where the disease is
believed to have originated in November, 2002.
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- The U.S. has expressed increasing anger with the Chinese
government for keeping the disease's original outbreak secret for months.
Chinese officials issued an apology early this week for moving slowly to
act against the spread of the illness.
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- U.S. officials said Wednesday that they are now satisfied
with the China's cooperation as epidemiologists try to uncover the origin
of SARS in Guangdong. "The Chinese have been very forthcoming since
last Tuesday," Thompson said.
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- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said that
the Chinese government's secrecy "held our scientists back."
Frist met with Yang Jiachi, the Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Wednesday
to discuss SARS and other issues.
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- "I'm comfortable today" with the CDC and WHO
scientists' freedom to operate in China, Frist told reporters following
the meeting.
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- The Chinese embassy in Washington did not respond to
requests for comment on the meeting.
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- Researchers have never been able to find an effective
vaccine against human coronaviruses. Still, Thompson said that he had scheduled
a meeting Wednesday with representatives from major U.S. pharmaceutical
companies to discuss the prospects of producing a SARS vaccine.
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