POSTED: 2:49 p.m. EDT April 22, 2003
UPDATED: 3:31 p.m. EDT April 22, 2003
BALTIMORE -- Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Peter Beilenson announced that one patient is being treated in Baltimore that he called "a potential case of severe acute respiratory syndrome" that the Center for Disease Control is classifying as a case of special interest.
Beilenson said the 26-year-old woman from Hong Kong was being treated at Maryland General Hospital.
TheWBALChannel.com was told that the patient is being held in isolation at the hospital.
He said 10 people who recently came in contact with someone who visited Hong Kong or came from the Chinese city were visiting a friend in downtown Baltimore. The woman came down with symptoms similar to those for SARS within 4 days of their visit to their friend's Mt. Vernon/Bolton Hill apartment.
Beilenson said the patient meets two of the three criteria for a SARS diagnosis, but health officials are waiting to see how the symptoms develop. He said the three criteria are:
body temperature over 100.4 degrees-- NOT MET (the patient had a temperature of 100.1)
respiratory symptoms including cough -- MET
recent travel to or from Hong Kong -- MET
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday that there are 39 SARS cases in the United States and 2,909 cases worldwide. Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the CDC, said travelers coming in and going out of the United States are being warned about the possible exposure risks and ways for protection.
In January 1999, MGH affiliated with the University of Maryland Medical System to form one of the largest health systems in the Baltimore metropolitan area.
http://www.thewbalchannel.com/health/2150812/detail.html
There have been other cases, haven't there, of SARS without the fever?