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June 11, 2003

INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS

“SARS Transmission Is Questioned”

Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com) (06/11/03) P. D7; Heinzl, Mark

Most health experts believe that severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is transmitted only by those patients who exhibit some of the symptoms, but others believe that asymptomatic transmission is a possibility, and officials are puzzled by the case of an infected North Carolina man who visited Toronto in May.  The man was in a hospital room in Toronto with a patient who later developed SARS, but the latter did not develop symptoms until days after the North Carolina man left the hospital.  A World Health Organization spokesman says that the baffling case will be considered with other factors about Toronto's second SARS outbreak, but the city is not at the moment under a restrictive travel advisory.  The North Carolina man began to show SARS symptoms after he returned home, but he is recovering, according to a North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman.  The man was visiting the roommate of the SARS patient in Toronto, but no one else at the hospital--the Baycrest Center for Geriatric Care--has developed SARS, nor have any of the North Carolina man's close contacts.  Mount Sinai Hospital director of infection control Allison McGeer suggests that some SARS patients may have a low-grade infection for a while before developing acute symptoms.