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Norwalk hospital denies sars Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.thehour.com/277565014875258.bsphttp://www.thehour.com/277565014875258.bsp
Hospital denies SARS report
By JILL BODACH
Hour Staff Writer
NORWALK -- Norwalk Hospital officials Friday denied a news report that patients suspected of being infected with SARS had been admitted to or treated in the hospital's emergency room.
"We have seen no cases of SARS, suspected or otherwise, in the emergency room," said Dr. Michael Carius, chairman of the department of emergency medicine at the hospital. "I have seen no patient information, and no hospital records that indicate that anyone who has come to the hospital's emergency room has been diagnosed with the SARS virus." The hospital's chief of infectious diseases, Dr. Ernest Atlas, was quoted in a news report as saying that the hospital's emergency room had seen two suspected SARS cases.
Carius, however, did not corroborate the statement.
"It's possible that there have been some reports of suspected cases from private practices in the city," said Carius, "but we haven't seen any cases in our emergency room." Carius said Atlas was not speaking on behalf of the hospital. Atlas, who also has a private practice in Norwalk, could not be reached for comment.
The criteria for diagnosing SARS that local hospitals have been given from the Center of Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Ga. is very loose and undefined. The three symptoms are a low-grade fever (more than 100.4 degrees), some sort of respiratory distress such as a cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing and a recent visit to a SARS-infected area such as Hong Kong or Toronto.
Norwalk Mayor Alex Knopp said that "many citizens are rightfully concerned about the impact of SARS, but rumors and false accusations will only make the situation worse by spreading needless fear." "That's why I've arranged for Norwalk Hospital to contact City Hall on the first suspicion of any case and to have the health director respond," Knopp said. "Just like we did with the news of a TB case at Brien McMahon this week. We will get the information out as soon as we receive it and offer professional health advice on how to respond appropriately to any actual case." Carius said the criteria for SARS is extremely broad. "Practically anyone who has the flu or even the common cold would exhibit the first two characteristics," he said.
The exact cause of SARS is unknown, although it is believed to be formed from the same virus that causes the common cold.
"They think right now that the coronavirus is a mutation of the common cold that affects a segment of the population that is more vulnerable than others, such as the elderly, the very young, those whose immune systems are compromised by diseases like HIV or leukemia and those with current respiratory conditions like asthma," Carius said.
There is also no test that the hospital can do to confirm on-site whether or not a patient has SARS, Carius said. If a person is suspected of carrying the coronavirus, the hospital would take blood tests and send them to the state lab which would in turn send them to the CDC lab. The whole process of testing a patient would take about a week to complete. Carius said the hospital has not seen any patient who met all three of the SARS criteria and needed to undergo testing. However, if someone came in who did meet all three of the criteria and was believed to be a probable SARS case, the hospital has measures in place to take care of the person and prevent any possible spread of the virus. "We haven't seen anyone we believe to have SARS, but if we did we would make every effort to isolate that person," Carius said.
He also said that the staff in the emergency room have been extra vigilant in treating patients complaining of the first two SARS criteria. "Anyone who comes in complaining of a fever and respiratory distress has immediately been asked if they have traveled to a SARS-infected area," Carius said.
There has not been a large influx of patients who have gone into the emergency room complaining that they think they have SARS, Carius said. "I think that people are aware of SARS, but it is not really a huge public concern that we've seen," he said. "When the anthrax scare was going on, we saw a huge bump in the number of people coming to the emergency room because they thought they had been exposed to anthrax, but we are just not seeing that with SARS." Patients who have come in complaining of a fever and respiratory distress have been treated for their symptoms and sent home. Carius encourages people experiencing SARS-like symptoms, particularly respiratory distress, to seek medical attention because even if they do not have SARS, respiratory symptoms should be taken seriously. "Anyone who has difficulty breathing should go see their doctor immediately, and if their doctor can't see them, they should come to the emergency room because respiratory symptoms are very serious, and respiratory disease can harm and even kill people," Carius said.
He believes that the SARS-scare has been created out of the uneasiness people feel with the threat of bioterrorism becoming more of a topic of national concern. "Bioterrorism has lowered our tolerance threshold when it comes to the fear of something happening to us," Carius said. "Right now, people should not be overly afraid. Twenty-thousand people die each year from the flu, and we accept that as they had a bad case of the flu, but SARS has created more panic among people, and it's not really merited."
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