Man accused of ignoring health orders (He'd complained of SARS-like symptoms)

City of Pewaukee - Authorities tracking a suspected case of SARS in Wisconsin charged a local man with a misdemeanor Friday, accusing him of refusing to cooperate with health officials.

Waukesha County's health director said that while the man's symptoms have subsided and it is unlikely he has severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, it is imperative that officials conduct further tests, quiz him about his contacts and get details of his recent travels to Asia.

Bamidele Ali, 26, of the city of Pewaukee was charged with failing to cooperate with health officials investigating a communicable disease, an offense with a maximum penalty of 30 days in jail and a $500 fine.

Police were attempting to issue a court summons to Ali on Friday at his apartment at W420-N2550 E. Parkway Meadow Circle.

District Attorney Paul Bucher said the charge was issued after Ali refused an order from the Waukesha County Department of Health and Human Services to submit to a blood test and provide other information.

Capt. Karen Ruff of the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department said deputies served Ali with the order April 4.

The criminal complaint, filed in Waukesha County Circuit Court, has nothing to do with whether Ali actually has contracted SARS, Bucher said. "This is solely about his failure to cooperate," he said.

Ali went to Waukesha Memorial Hospital in mid-March complaining of symptoms associated with SARS. Those symptoms typically include cough, respiratory distress and fever.

When Ali told doctors he had recently returned from Singapore and China, they reported his case to the county's health department.

Peter Schuler, who directs the health department, said Ali's visit to Asia between Feb. 20 and March 4 coincided with the time when SARS cases were first emerging from that region of the world.

"There is no SARS that we know of," Schuler said Friday, "but this person definitely had a potential of being exposed."

Since being identified in Asia, SARS has infected 4,600 people and killed more than 270, including 19 deaths in Canada. No one in the United States has died.

For weeks, Wisconsin health officials have indicated that the state had one suspected SARS case but said the patient did not have symptoms that would meet the definition of a probable case.

Officials have not previously identified Ali as the suspected case. But Ali is identified in the complaint, and he is accused of "very clearly and unambiguously" refusing repeated pleas from health officials to provide a blood sample and other information.

The complaint says county officials urged Ali to stay home until his symptoms improved, to consult his own physician and to wear a mask in public. Those requests were disregarded, and Ali later ignored calls from his physician, the complaint says.

Officials twice gave Ali specific dates - April 9 and April 16 - to report to the health department in Waukesha, but he never showed up, the complaint says.

Schuler said although the law allows the county to quarantine suspected cases of SARS, no such action is planned, especially since Ali's symptoms have subsided. He said he was not allowed to disclose where Ali was employed because of patient confidentiality rules.

Physicians at Waukesha Memorial Hospital obtained a blood sample from Ali during his initial visit. A second sample is needed to compare the level of antibodies, because a change in antibodies could signal the presence of an infection.

There is no approved test for SARS, and health officials are using experimental tests being developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Schuler said that, without another blood sample, it might be impossible to determine whether Ali was exposed to SARS.

Journal Sentinel reporter Marilynn Marchione and WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) contributed to this story

You can expect to see a few more cases like this, and not just among guys named "Ali", especially if this thing starts spreading domestically. Essentially, you have to weigh the individual's right to be free of intrusive and coerced medical testing and treatment against everyone else's right not to be dead, and there are always a few "rugged individualists" who would rather have everyone else dead than submit...

Hmm now IF the "health officials" would've acted like this with the Typhoid Mary of AIDS, how many innocent lives would've been saved?

Good question. Especially since most of the victims of AIDS are exactly the people the politically correct health authorities are desperately trying to protect: homosexuals.

It's like black on black crime. When politically correct law enforcement and courts let blacks get away with murder, the chief victims are: blacks.

It's time they put away political correctness and acted for the good of the community and its citizens.

Possible photo of Ali, second from left, at the University of Kentucky college of engineering, specializing in radio transmissions:

5 posted on 04/26/2003 11:24:52 AM PDT by LurkedLongEnough (Living proof that a Conservative can spring from a "Liberal Arts" education.)

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