[bonesmccoy]

Looks like diagnosis of this germ requires old school clinical work. The diagnosis is not molecular, it's clinical!

So, we need to go looking for symptoms that match in our community and we need support from Public Health to do our work.

[Mother Abigail]

Well said

[Mother Abigail]

Attention News/Health Editors:

Ontario's Public Health Commissioner urges Ontarians at risk of SARS to seek medical help

TORONTO, March 21 /CNW/ - Dr. Colin D'Cunha, Ontario's Commissioner of Public Health, is urging Ontarians who are at risk of developing Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) to call their local family doctor, or call Telehealth Ontario for more information.

Those at risk include people with recent travel to China's Guandong Province, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Singapore, (there have also been sporadic cases reported in Germany, Thailand, Taiwan, Slovenia and the United Kingdom) or those who have had close contact with persons diagnosed with SARS. These people should seek medical attention, if they develop a fever (over 38 degrees Celsius) and one or more of the following respiratory symptoms: cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing.

[Domestic Church]

You are right, this battle is primarily the clinician frontline.

[Mother Abigail]

March 21 , 2003 23:31PM

Five More Infected With SARS, Toll Hits 39

By Salbiah Said

SINGAPORE, March 21 (Bernama) -- Five more people have been infected with atypical pneumonia, dubbed Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), bringing the total struck by the killer flu to 39, the Health Ministry said Friday.

The five new cases comprise four hospital staff and one close contact of a patient.

Three patients have been discharged from hospital while the other 36 patients are still in hospital. All the patients are stable except for seven patients who are in serious condition.

[Mother Abigail]

Stones' China Shows Will Go On

The Rolling Stones will perform two concerts in Hong Kong and two in China as scheduled, regardless of the war in Iraq and a deadly pneumonia outbreak in southern China, a source said today (March 21). Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source stated, "As long as there isn't a war in the country they are performing then
Colleen Ironside of Live Productions, the Hong Kong concerts' lead promoter, did not respond to a request for comment.
The April 1 concert in Shanghai and April 4 show in Beijing are the Stones' first appearances on the Chinese mainland.

Tell me baby, what's my name

Tell me honey, can ya guess my name

Tell me baby, what's my name

I tell you one time, you're to blame

[Mother Abigail]

Posted at 10:06 AM on Friday, March 21, 2003

Kansas may have first case of fatal disease

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Kansas may have its first case of a mystery illness that has killed at least 14 people around the world.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said a south-central Kansas man who recently returned from Asia was hospitalized this week with symptoms of the illness.

The man is being treated at Via Christi St. Francis in Wichita, said Pat MacDonald, a spokesperson for the Sedgwick County Health Department. A hospital spokesperson said the man is in isolation and listed in fair condition.

[Mother Abigail]

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong, fearing a killer pneumonia virus was spreading among schoolchildren, shut a school on Friday and said three others would be disinfected over the weekend, a government spokesman said.

 "Now that the virus is in schools, this may just explode. Schools are so congested and children don't know how to take precautions. If they even suspect an infection, they must close the schools," said one mother, Olivia Lo.

Hong Kong's health chief Yeoh Eng-Kiong said six children were now infected in the territory, up from five on Thursday.