from: http://www.azcentral.com/health/0408azsars08.html
First suspected case of mystery illness identified in Valley
Kerry Fehr-Snyder
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 8, 2003 12:00 AM
The state's first suspected case of SARS, a mysterious pneumonia that is sweeping the globe, has been identified in the Valley.
Maricopa County health officials said the patient is a man who had traveled recently through Hong Kong.
He was hospitalized with symptoms of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and is expected to be released soon from a hospital and to be isolated at home for up to 10 days.
Health officials declined to release the man's name or any other identifying information. They also would not identify the hospital where he is being treated.
Jonathan Weisbuch, Maricopa County director of public health, said, "The general public does not appear to be at risk for infection," but he warned residents to seek medical attention if they exhibit any SARS symptoms.
The highly contagious disease is characterized by a dry, unproductive cough with a fever of 100.4 or higher and is believed to affect individuals who have recently traveled to China or Vietnam.
As of Monday, 17 countries have reported 2,601 cases of SARS, with 100 deaths.
Cases of the disease are still on the rise. In the United States, 115 cases in 29 states had been reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as of Friday. By Monday, the number had grown to 141 cases, according to the World Health Organization.
No deaths have been reported in the United States, although SARS patients have died in Canada, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
For the past several weeks, state and county health officials have investigated 17 suspected cases of SARS, said Dr. Larry Sands, Maricopa County medical director for the division of epidemiology and biodefense preparedness and response.
None except the case reported to CDC officials Monday turned out to be the syndrome; those were cases of other types of respiratory ailments, such as walking pneumonia.
The CDC will not be able to confirm that the first case in Arizona is SARS until it can perform sophisticated laboratory testing, including using electron microscopes and genetic screens of the virus, Sands said. He added that he does not know the timetable for when the tests will be completed.
SARS cases surround Arizona geographically, with California reporting the largest number for a single state.
But Dr. Robert Baron, co-director of the emergency department at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in Phoenix, urged residents to take the news in stride.
"We can't think that every time someone gets a fever right now they have SARS," Baron said.
Instead, individuals must have a travel history to China or other affected areas or they must have had close contact with someone who has been in the affected areas to meet the case definition set by the World Health Organization and the CDC.
Dr. John Shufeldt, an emergency department physician at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, said he recently had a patient who met the SARS case definition. But a chest X-ray and other tests revealed the patient did not have SARS.
"You just know by the severity of the symptoms and how quickly they advance," he said.
Like Baron, Shufeldt warned against buying masks and goggles because they are not necessary.
"Wearing those masks around is way overkill," he said.
But he also said that if more suspected SARS cases appear in the Valley, the disease could strain hospitals and physicians.
"If it hits outbreak status, everyone will think they have SARS," he said. "It's going to be tough to diagnose."