Actually most of what is on the CDC website has been discussed on the SARS threads at one time or another here. That is, however, a semi-excellent source for information.
Without getting into a flame war, I do think that the CDC is unnecessarily restrictive in limiting the case definition to people known to have been in one of the countries or cities known to have SARS already, or close contact with someone who has been in an affected area recently.
The person might not even know, after all, that they had been on an elevator, for instance, with someone who had recently been to an infected area...
Without getting into a flame war, I do think that the CDC is unnecessarily restrictive in limiting the case definition to people known to have been in one of the countries or cities known to have SARS already, or close contact with someone who has been in an affected area recently.
The person might not even know, after all, that they had been on an elevator, for instance, with someone who had recently been to an infected area...
Thank you Judith Anne for pointing this out. The lame-stream media should have exposed this little CDC word game long ago.
For the CDC to assume that a SARS victim couldn't have been infected unknowingly is insane. They're basically saying.... if the patient can't be linked to a high risk SARS area, or a known suspected SARS case, then he can't have SARS. And according to
their definition of suspected SARS, they'd be right! What a scam. PT Barnum would be proud.
A while ago I sent an e-mail to the CDC asking them why their
case definition for suspected SARS would potentially allow many cases to "slip through the cracks" and go uncounted. They never answered me. (Boo hoo)
The CDC has since updated their case definition, but it still has loopholes that
allow for massive underreporting in my opinion. And the CDC has the nerve to say their case definition for suspected SARS is "broad". Give me a break.
Since the CDC's system for reporting and documenting suspected SARS cases is obviously flawed, maybe we should also be following the number of boring old pneumonia cases to find out how bad the "mystery illness" situation
really is.