2 Possible SARS Cases in Dade

April 4, 2003
By Michael Vasquez And Fred Tasker
mrvasquez@herald.com

The first two Florida patients showing symptoms of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome live in Miami-Dade County, the Florida Department of Health reported Thursday.

The department also reported a third suspected Florida case, a 70-year-old Alachua County woman who was hospitalized when she showed symptoms of SARS after having traveled to east Asia recently.

State health officials have sent samples from all three Florida patients to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has set the criteria for doctors to identify possible SARS cases, for further study.

But local health experts said South Florida residents don't have to take special precautions, other than to watch for future information from the Department of Health.

The Miami-Dade suspected cases involve a 21-year-old woman and a 36-year-old man, both of whom had traveled to Asia, the health department said. The patients showed symptoms that could be linked to a variety of ailments, not necessarily SARS.

There is a good chance, said Mary Jo Trepka, director of epidemiology for the Miami-Dade County Health Department, that neither of the Miami-Dade patients actually became infected with SARS.

''The CDC's casting a really wide net,'' Trepka said. ``How many people do you know who cough and have a fever?''

The first suspected case in Miami-Dade surfaced in late March; the second was discovered a few days ago, Trepka said. Both patients were treated by private physicians and did not require hospitalization, she said.

The 70-year-old Alachua County woman is in the hospital, state health officials said. Her hospitalization does not necessarily mean her illness is more severe than what doctors saw in Miami-Dade, the health officials said. She began showing symptoms after arriving home from a trip to Asia, said state epidemiologist Dr. Steven Wiersma. Her illness does not appear to be life threatening, he said.

State officials did not immediately disclose the possible SARS cases in Miami-Dade for fear of scaring a public that has been bombarded with images of Asians wearing protective masks in recent days, said state health department spokesman Rob Hayes.

Hayes acknowledged that, in the case of other illnesses such as the West Nile Virus, the state has typically disclosed the location of cases right away.

''Because this is such a sensational, if you will, syndrome, there was concern about the potential impact of announcing cases in certain areas,'' Hayes said.

The state changed its position, Hayes said, after deciding it was ``more important to be consistent.''

Miami infectious disease experts urged South Florida residents not to worry too much about the cases reported so far.

The Florida Department of Health said residents who have typical SARS symptoms -- a fever of 100.4 degrees or higher, dry cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing developed on or after Feb. 1 and who have recently traveled to infected countries, mostly in Asia -- should contact a doctor.

''But I wouldn't go just for a case of sniffles,'' said Dr. Gio J. Baracco, an infectious disease expert with the University of Miami School of Medicine.

On Wednesday, the CDC put out an alert urging hospitals, doctors and infectious disease professionals to be on the lookout for possible new SARS cases and to report them quickly to local health departments and the CDC.

''The two cases reported here are imported from outside, and they are confined, so there's no evidence the disease has been transmitted in this community,'' Baracco said.

''In China,'' he said, ``there is evidence of transmission within the community, between people who might not be related to each other. It's a completely different situation here. The people are isolated at home and followed very closely, and their close contacts are being followed by the Department of Health. I don't perceive this as a community threat at this point.''

So far, the illness has killed at least 80 people in Asia and Canada and sickened at least 2,200 in more than 12 nations.

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control has reported 100 suspected SARS cases in 28 states -- but no deaths so far. Doctors are speculating as to why U.S. cases seem less severe than Asian cases. Florida's three suspected cases have not yet been added to the CDC count, a spokeswoman said late Thursday.

The Department of Health would not release the names of the three people who are suspected of having the disease.

Public health experts think SARS is spread by close contact between people. SARS is most likely spread when someone with the disease coughs droplets into the air and someone else breathes them in. It is possible that SARS also can spread more broadly through the air or from touching objects that have become contaminated.

To find out more about SARS, go to the CDC's SARS website at www.cdc.gov/ncidod/sars/.

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