Spectre of Sars weighs on US as Mers virus arrives in Indiana
When the Sars outbreak arrived in Toronto on February 23, 2003, carried by a woman travelling from Hong Kong, the disease quickly spread to hospital workers and patients in area hospitals, ultimately infecting 257 individuals and killing 33 people.
When the Sars outbreak arrived in Toronto on February 23, 2003, carried by a woman travelling from Hong Kong, the disease quickly spread to hospital workers and patients in area hospitals, ultimately infecting 257 individuals and killing 33 people.
It’s a memory that hangs fresh in the mind of Dr Michael Bell, deputy director of the division of healthcare quality promotion at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Atlanta-based federal agency last week sent a team of infectious disease experts to Community Hospital in Munster, Indiana, to attend to the first confirmed US case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome or Mers.
“We take this very seriously,” Bell said in an exclusive interview. “In a worst-case scenario, this could spread rapidly.”
Mers is caused by a coronavirus, a family of viruses that includes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or Sars, which emerged in China in 2002-2003 and killed some 800 people.
“If you recall the Sars experience in Toronto, that was something that managed to be transmitted into the healthcare facility, leading to severe illness and death,” he said.
“This is not something that we want to take lightly.”
