Mystery illness extends its reach
Clifton Park-- Easter visitor becomes county's first suspected SARS case
By CLAIRE HUGHES, Staff writer
First published: Thursday, April 24, 2003
A woman visiting family in Clifton Park has Saratoga County's first suspected case of severe acute respiratory syndrome, bringing the total number of Capital Region cases of the flu-like illness to four.
County health officials won't disclose the woman's residence, due to confidentiality rules, but said she had traveled through Toronto to arrive here Friday to visit with family for Easter. She has agreed to remain in her relatives' home -- under voluntary quarantine -- until more is known about her condition.
Health officials became aware of the case Tuesday after the woman went to a medical clinic seeking treatment, said Terry Stortz, Saratoga County Public Health prevention team supervisor. She had started to feel ill Sunday, Stortz said. On Wednesday, the state listed the patient as one of 17 suspected SARS cases being monitored throughout New York.
Because the laboratory test to confirm SARS is new and time-consuming, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta tracks cases of the disease that are suspected. Symptoms of SARS include a fever over 100.4, headache, muscle stiffness and loss of appetite. To be classified as a suspected case of SARS, a person also must have traveled to a region where SARS has spread throughout the community. Toronto is one of those locations.
None of the woman's four Clifton Park relatives in the house with her have symptoms of the disease, Stortz said. They have been given tips for staying well, including monitoring their symptoms and washing their hands frequently. Unless they develop symptoms of the illness, however, they will not be asked to stay home, Stortz said.
Health workers who treated the patient should remain well if they used common precautions for not spreading the disease, such as washing their hands well. The disease is believed to be spread only through close contact with a SARS patient, including exposure to body fluids like phlegm.
The illness, whose cause was recently determined to be a coronavirus, has spread through 27 countries since November. More than 4,000 people have developed the infection, which has killed 251 people, according to the World Health Organization. There are 39 suspected cases in the United States.
State and federal health officials have listed three other area patients -- two in Rensselaer County and one in Schenectady County -- as having suspected cases of SARS. All had traveled to China, where SARS originated and thousands of people have been infected. All have recovered, health officials said. No one they were in contact with has shown symptoms of the disease.
The Schenectady County case involved a businessman who never developed the most-severe pneumonia-like symptoms of the disease, said Lisa Ayers, a communicable disease nurse for the county Health Department. It will probably never be known whether he really had it.
"We wanted to err on the side of caution and keep the individual home because there was travel history," Ayers said.
April 24, 2003