US warns of Sars epidemic spread

US warns of Sars epidemic spread

By Steve Schifferes BBC News Online, Washington

Malaysia: Spread of virus treated as issue of national security

It is too early to tell whether the Sars epidemic has peaked, according to US health officials.

Dr Julie Gerberding, head of the Centre for Communicable Diseases, told a Congressional committee that the new disease -severe acute respiratory syndrome - had as yet no cure and no vaccine.

"It has the potential to spread very quickly and to spread globally," she said.

She said that the CDC had confirmed 2,301 cases worldwide on every continent, and said that there were now 148 potential cases in the United States in some 30 states.

And she warned that people should avoid non-essential travel to the regions - especially China and Hong Kong - which were affected by the disease.

Nearly all the US cases were the result of travellers returning from Asia, she said, although 5 were infections of family members and 2 US health care workers had the disease.

Ban on flights

Meanwhile, the US airline Continental has suspended direct flights to Hong Kong because of a drop in demand from business travellers.

Continental said that its five times a week flight from Newark, New Jersey to Hong Kong would end on Thursday, and not be resumed until 2 June.

About 58% of US businesses surveyed recently have banned travel to Asia.

Highly infectious

Dr Anthony Fuci, the head of the infectious diseases section at the National Institutes of Health, warned that this disease was highly infectious, and may have not yet reached its peak.

And last week the US added the Sars disease to its list of those conditions which it could require mandatory quarantine of infected patients.

The quick monitoring of cases and isolation of patients has been the main reason it has not spread faster in the United States, the CDC said.

Dr Gerberding said there was possibility that the disease could be seasonal, and that the number of cases would decrease in the summer.

Searching for a cure

Dr Fauci said that what we are seeing is the emergence of a new disease that may have had its origin in animals.

It appeared to be caused by the corona virus, which also causes the common cold.

He said that researchers have succeeded in growing cultures of the new disease in monkey tissues, leaving open the possibility that a vaccine could be developed.

But he said that it would take a least a year to develop such a vaccine "if we were lucky."

However, diagnostic tests to determine whether someone has the disease may be available much more quickly, in a few weeks.

And the US was investigating the possibility that by screening existing drugs, like interferon, they might find something that was effective against the virus.

SARS: PROBABLE CASES AND DEATHS

China 1247 cases (51 deaths)

Hong Kong 842 (23)

Singapore 112 (8)

Vietnam 65 (4)

Canada 217 (9)

USA 148

Thailand 7 (2)

Malaysia (suspected) 70 (1)

Source: National health authorities

Responding to criticism of China's slow response to the disease, Dr David Heymann, head of the communicable disease section of the World Health Organisation, said that the WHO could not force its presence on other countries.

"We must create an international environment in which all countries want to participate in the international monitoring efforts," he said.

Officials said that, although there was no evidence that this outbreak was related to bio terrorism, it could be seen as a dress rehearsal for the way the world community might have to respond to such an emergency.

Dr Gerberding said that the preparations for such an attack had improved the ability of the public health community to respond to this epidemic.