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Officials, hospitals brace for SARS disease By Sean Wolfe Ashland Daily Tidings While the first case of severe acute respiratory syndrome has yet to hit Jackson County, health officials, area hospitals, and Medford's airport are bracing for impact. In the wake of health warnings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, new protocols for treatment of the disease are being released in the next few days to hospital emergency workers and other first responders. In addition, new guidelines for the cleaning of commercial aircraft have been issued in the event a passenger is suspected to have the disease. Keith Stephens tests for the presence of pneumonia this morning at Ashland Community Hospital where lab officials say they haven't had a suspected case of the SARS virus. Ashland Daily Tidings/DENISE BARATTA According to Heather Freiheit, Rogue Valley Medical Center's clinical manager for Emergency Services, the hospital is in close contact with both the CDC as well as Jackson County health officials, and is now working on a questionnaire for nurses to use in screening patients. "It's only just now sounding like it's starting to hit us," Freiheit said. "I've only heard of one or two cases on the West Coast, between San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. But there is the potential here for people to come into contact with the disease, on flights, or on connecting flights." The issue facing health workers is how to screen for the disease. Freiheit said the problem is that the symptoms of SARS are similar to the common cold. RVMC's emergency arm gets roughly 100 patients a day, about a quarter of them with breathing problems or flu-like symptoms. Hank Collins, Jackson County's Director of Health and Human Services, said the county is working closely with hospitals to detect the disease, but he also downplayed the role of Rogue Valley Medford International Airport as a vector for the disease to spread to the area. "Because the foreign trade zone (at the airport) is gone, the fact that there's no customs here, and given the lack of direct flights from any place internationally, it's not something we need to be concerned about," Collins said. "It's definitely a scary thing. There is a lot of travel back and forth, so it's probably just a matter of time before we start seeing something here. It's hard to say what we'll do. If someone comes down with the disease, we're trusting our healthcare system to do what they need to do. Early recognition is key, and that's why we're ratcheting up our surveillance." On Tuesday, an aircraft from Tokyo was quarantined for a short time at an airport in San Jose, Calif., the first sign that the West Coast could soon see the first cases of SARS, and expanding the list of cities generally associated with SARS cases. Prior to the quarantine, CDC alerts had associated SARS with travelers to Hong Kong, mainland China and Hanoi, Vietnam. Bern Case, Airport Manager for Rogue Valley Medford International Airport, said the airport gets an international flight only "once in a great while," and that he was cooperating with county health officials. "We've circulated some information to our employees. And if there's a bunch of sick people on a flight, we'll call the health department," Case said. In a May 29 conference call, physicians and epidemiologists working for the CDC said the disease is believed to spread through "droplet spread" when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Because of the nature of the SARS virus - called a coronavirus - it can also survive in the environment without a host for two to three hours, so contaminated objects could also serve to spread the disease, CDC officials said. Despite this understanding of viral behavior, CDC guidelines for the cleaning of aircraft continue to emphasize wiping down of surfaces and frequently touched objects with germicide, and omit recommending special cleaning for upholstery, carpets or storage compartments. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -