LV visitor quarantined for suspected SARS

Mary Manning and Ed Koch

Tuesday, May 6, 2003 | 11:15 a.m.

A second suspected case of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, has been identified by Clark County health officials.

However, health officials say, it is not a confirmed case nor even a probable case of SARS -- the two highest classification levels of the disease -- and that the symptoms in the latest case are mild. Also, officials say, test results on the first suspected local case of SARS came back negative.

The person involved in the latest case arrived in a private vehicle from out of state over the weekend, Clark County Health District spokesman David Tonelli said Monday.

"We wouldn't exactly identify this person as a tourist because that would lead people to believe he was out sight-seeing and mingling with others, and that was not the case," Clark County Health District spokeswoman Jennifer Sizemore said today. "It would be more accurate to say the person was a visitor."

"The person has not stayed in any (Las Vegas) hotel or other public place," Tonelli said.

Although the person is not a Las Vegas resident, the case will be counted in the state's total of suspected cases, which stands at three, Tonelli said.

Tonelli said he could not reveal where the person came from, citing new federal guidelines protecting patient privacy. Health officials will not even release the sex of the victim.

Officials did confirm, however, that the person's travel history was considered in classifying the case as suspected SARS. Sizemore said that means the person recently was in either China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, Taiwan or Toronto.

The person has mild symptoms and has volunteered to remain in isolation for 10 days, Tonelli said.

Isolation differs from quarantine in that the person is not supervised, but rather agrees to not have contact with others. The health district would not confirm where the person is staying or what kind of facility the person is staying at. Sizemore said hospitalization is not required in isolation cases.

The health district also reported Monday that tests showed a local woman who had reported mild SARS symptoms and had visited Hong Kong did not have the disease. She has completely recovered from whatever her ailment was and has returned to work, Sizemore said.

Despite the fact it turned out she did not have SARS, for statistical purposes, she remains classified as a suspected SARS case under guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Sizemore said that even if her tests had returned positive, she would have remained classified as suspected SARS and not elevated to confirmed SARS because her illness was not severe -- the first "S" in SARS.

A case of suspected SARS was also reported in Washoe County last month.

To date, there have been 6,583 probable SARS cases worldwide, including 61 in the United States, according to the World Health Organization website.

As of Monday, the Centers for Disease Control reported a total of 254 suspected cases of SARS in the United States. The CDC statistics differ slightly from the World Health Organization figures, with the CDC reporting 65 probable cases of the disease in the United States.

As of today, 480 people had died of the disease, including 214 in China, 193 in Hong Kong, 28 in Singapore, 23 in Canada, 11 in Taiwan and five in Vietnam. No other country has more than two deaths and no one in the United States has died from SARS, the World Health Organization said.

To date, 2,764 SARS sufferers have been classified as having recovered from the disease, the World Health Organization said.