"Feds developing guidelines for potential SARS-infected airplanes"

Thursday, April 3, 2003

Feds developing guidelines for potential SARS-infected airplanes 
By JUSTIN PRITCHARD
The Associated Press


SAN FRANCISCO - Health officials are developing guidelines for responding to
airline passengers who show symptoms of a deadly new mystery illness, hoping
to avoid the confusion that ensued when a flight from Tokyo was detained
before doctors gave the all-clear. 

"We want to contain overreaction as much as we want to enhance rapid
response," said Martin Cetron, deputy director of the federal Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention's quarantine division. 

CDC officials are working with airline and cruise ship groups to standardize
the response to passengers suspected of carrying the disease that has
already killed at least 78 people worldwide. Another 2,200 are believed to
be sick with severe acute respiratory syndrome, SARS, the World Health
Organization said. 

Public health officials in San Jose appealed for federal guidance after
scrambling Tuesday to isolate the American Airlines flight whose captain
reported five passengers might have SARS symptoms. 

"If every flight from Asia has someone coughing on it and has to go through
the same procedure, I just don't see how that's feasible," said Dr. Karen
Smith, the Santa Clara County health officer who boarded the plane. "It took
a tremendous amount of resources to do this." 

Within hours all five people - none of whom professed to feeling
particularly ill - had been cleared. 

Meanwhile, some jittery international travelers were seen wearing surgical
masks Wednesday as they stepped off flights from Tokyo and Beijing at
Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. 

Steven Subar, 42, said he had donned his mask in Tokyo after asking airline
employees whether anyone from Hong Kong was on the flight. He then asked
whether people sitting in rows near him had been in that city, so he could
change seats if necessary, and didn't eat on the flight. 

"I brought my own water," he said. "I didn't touch the door knobs - I used a
paper towel." 

Los Angeles International Airport spokeswoman Nancy Castles said roughly 90
percent of passengers arriving from afflicted areas such as Japan, Korea,
Taiwan and Hong Kong were wearing masks.


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