SARS

(CIDRAP News) – World Health Organization (WHO) officials today said Vietnam has not had a new SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) case in 17 days and could soon become the first country to contain the epidemic, even as the cumulative global case count took another sizable jump.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today warned against unnecessary travel to Toronto, Beijing, and China's Shanxi Province because of the risk of contracting SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome).

The warning extends the WHO's Apr 2 advisory against nonessential travel to China's Guangdong Province and Hong Kong, the birthplace and epicenter of the SARS epidemic.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning blood-collection agencies not to accept blood from people who have been in places hard-hit by SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) until 2 weeks after their return to the United States.

(CIDRAP News) – The number of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) cases in China soared in the past 2 days with official revelations that Beijing has 448 cases, more than 10 times the number previously reported.

The increase helped push the worldwide cumulative total to 3,861 cases, with 217 deaths, according to today's figures from the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO reported 495 new cases since the previous report on Apr 19.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials said today that only 35 people in the United States have "probable" cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a small fraction of the 208 suspected cases under investigation.

(CIDRAP News) – A previously unrecognized coronavirus that has been regarded for 3 weeks as the likely cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has been confirmed as the pathogen, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today.

(CIDRAP News) – Genetic sequencing of the virus believed to cause severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)—an achievement announced by Canadian and US scientists in the past few days—has set the stage for improving diagnostic tests and developing treatments and vaccines for the disease, according to health officials.

(CIDRAP News) – The head of the World Health Organization's (WHO's) communicable disease programs says severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) may pose a more serious global health threat than any other new disease in the past 20-plus years, with the sole exception of AIDS.

(CIDRAP News) – In response to public concern, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will provide some guidelines for dealing with suspected cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in schools and workplaces, CDC Director Julie Gerberding said today.

(CIDRAP News) – A World Health Organization (WHO) official today said the peak of the epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has passed in places other than China and Hong Kong, despite the continuing increase in cases.