[Brian S]

Bush issues order allowing quarantine of SARS patients
By the Mercury News

President Bush issued an executive order today that would allow the quarantine of patients with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, the mysterious respiratory illness thought to have originated in China.

The illness has affected a suspected 115 people in the United States and 2,400 worldwide, killing around 80. Santa Clara County is at the epicenter of the country's SARS outbreak, with nine suspected cases, more than any other locale.

The order also names cholera, diphtheria, infectious tuberculosis, plague, smallpox, yellow fever and viral hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola, Lassa and Marburg.

Bush's order allows the Health and Human Services secretary to decide when such a quarantine is needed.

On Tuesday, international attention focused on the South Bay when an American Airlines flight from Tokyo was grounded for two hours after its arrival in San Jose because several people aboard displayed possible SARS symptoms. None had the disease.

Now, county public health officials plan to dig deeper for potential SARS cases through what they call ``expanded surveillance.'' The county is likely to be the first in the nation to more aggressively define SARS cases.

To define a case as suspected SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control requires doctors to diagnose a fever of more than 100.5 degrees and respiratory symptoms such as a cough or difficulty breathing -- in conjunction with recent travel to China, Vietnam, Hong Kong or Singapore.

IF YOU'RE INTERESTED

Go to www.cdc.gov or call the Santa Clara County Public Health Department at (408) 885-3980 for more information about SARS.

[Timesink]

The order also names cholera, diphtheria, infectious tuberculosis, plague, smallpox, yellow fever and viral hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola, Lassa and Marburg.

So which is it? Bush signed an executive order adding SARS to an already-extant list, or Bush signed an executive order making up the quarantine law out of whole cloth?