SARS The Responsible and the Irresponsible

[Belgique]

SARS - Epidemic Predicted

Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 5:08 PM
Subject: 2nd EDM Update on SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)

2nd EDM Update on SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)

A Global Threat?
April 2, 2003

We published our first international hazard announcement about SARS on March 20, 2003. At that time, approximately 350 cases and 10 fatalities had been reported. Today, only 13 days later, more than 1,800 cases worldwide have been reported with more than 60 deaths in Canada, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam.

The public interest at the time of our initial statement was focused on the war in Iraq. Response to SARS was rather slow. Since then the impact of the spread of the virus has become far more obvious, and media coverage of the topic has reached the level of newspaper headlines and CNN coverage.

Airports, airlines, and the public face the risk of quarantine; air travel (not only to and from Asia) is decreasing; schools, factories, and offices in Asia have begun to close; business and leadership meetings and even Rolling Stones concerts in South East Asia and China have been postponed. With the increased interest of the media, the risk of exaggeration, misinformation, and unnecessary public anxiety is obvious.

The virus and its spread have not been contained. Today, more than 6 billion (6,000,000,000) people live on Earth. Everyday, up to 2 million people worldwide cross national borders.

Each year, the USA alone hosts 47 million visitors and 1.5 billion (!) people travel on commercial airplanes. Today, using the service of an aircraft, the SARS virus and any other pathogen can be virtually anywhere within 48 hours.

The symptoms of SARS are unspecific. They are described as a person with one or more signs or symptoms of respiratory illness, including cough, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, hypoxia, or radiographic findings of pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome AND fever AND one or more of the following: close contact within 10 days of the onset of symptoms with a person under investigation or suspected of having SARS and/or travel within 10 days of onset of symptoms to an area with documented transmission of SARS.

Worst of all, many health care workers have fallen victim to the virus, some have already died. Among the dead is Dr. Carlo Urbani, a veteran expert on communicable diseases, and the first WHO officer to identify the outbreak of SARS in Hanoi, Vietnam. The same ailment ended his life on March 29, 2003.

Like most viral infections, medication to treat SARS is useless. The risk, particularly for those working in airports, on airplanes, in the emergency services, and within the medical communities is undeniable.

It is imperative that all levels of the public and private sectors prepare for SARS. If this communicable disease, which has a fatality rate of approximately 5%, shuts down commercial aviation, it will impact many of the 127 million people employed in the aviation industry and hurt, in a ripple effect, entire economies.

We at EDM are compiling as much information as possible about the virus, its spread and contagiousness, and ways to prevent or mitigate a pandemic outbreak. At <www.edmus.info> we regularly publish SARS information from and links to distinct sources and organizations (i.e., WHO, CDC, Health Canada), including policies and activities undertaken by health officials throughout the world. The federal health department of Canada, a nation that has already faced six deaths, has implemented exemplary procedures for arriving and departing travelers.

We urge every aviation and emergency professional to stay informed and aware of new developments. More importantly, we ask that you share your experiences, best practices, and lessons learned in reducing the threat of the SARS outbreak.

Please forward to EDM any related information or procedures to be published at www.edmus.info.

SARS has the potential for a calamity of huge proportions and must already be considered a global threat. Sharing knowledge and experiences, working together, acting locally while thinking globally is a must, not a choice.

"Emergency Management is Planet Management"

To facilitate such an exchange of knowledge, EDM is announcing the development of one-day workshops on SARS and other biological agents within the very near future, the first to be held in the middle of April at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), another one will be held at the end of April at Frankfurt International Airport in Germany. If you or your organization wishes to attend and participate, please send us an e-mail stating your interest.

Emergency & Disaster Management, Inc.
Airport Center
5959 West Century Boulevard, Suite 700
Los Angeles, California 90045
USA
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Email: [email protected]
www.edmus.info
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