[Judith Anne]

Thanks for posting this.

[Mother Abigail]

Thank you for the heads up..

[Mother Abigail]

Two people hospitalized in France after trips to Asia

1 hour, 28 minutes ago

PARIS - French health authorities said Monday that two people who returned from Asia were hospitalized in Paris for tests to check for a mysterious new form of Asian pneumonia.

 One of the patients returned from Vietnam showing flu-like symptoms and the other person, who was in Hong Kong, appeared to be suffering from bronchitis, said Lucien Abenhaim, France's director-general of health.

Abenhaim said more details were expected later in the day.
Symptoms of the illness include fever, coughing, shortness of breath, headache, diarrhea and muscle stiffness, but physicians understand little about the disease that officials have dubbed "severe acute respiratory syndrome," or SARS.
Outbreaks of atypical pneumonia that hit southern China several months ago have been followed by similar cases in neighboring Asian nations, and most recently in Europe and North America.

It was not clear whether the cases — including five deaths in China, one in Vietnam, one in Hong Kong and two in Canada — are linked or caused by one disease type or several strains.