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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, May 23, 2003

SARS Could Reappear This Winter: US Wxperts

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a flu-like disease which has killed more than 660 people around the world, is likely to reappear with a vengeance this winter, US experts and health officials have warned.


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Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a flu-like disease which has killed more than 660 people around the world, is likely to reappear with a vengeance this winter, US experts and health officials have warned.

"I am convinced that with the advent of early winter in the Northern Hemisphere in just six short months, we will see a resurgence of SARS that could far exceed our experience to date," Michael T. Osterholm, chairman of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, was quoted by The Washington Post as saying.

"If this projection is correct, we have every reason to believe that this disease may show up in multiple US cities as we continue to travel around the world in unprecedented numbers and speed," said Osterholm, one of the leading infectious-disease experts in the United States.

Osterholm's bleak forecast was echoed by the nation's top health officials.

"I hope he (Osterholm) is wrong, but I fear that he's correct," said Julie L. Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "It only takes one highly infectious person to set off a cascade."

"It would be distinctly unusual for a respiratory disease that is spread this way to all of a sudden just disappear," agreed Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Speaking earlier this week in Brussels, US Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson also warned that the SARS virus may reappear in the United States and Europe next flu season and cause some deaths, according to wire service reports.

"I do not think SARS is going to go away. Even though it may level off now, it could come back in the fall and then you can, I think, anticipate that you will have deaths in all the continents," Thompson said.

So far, a total of 353 SARS cases have been reported from 40 states in the United States with no deaths. Among them, 286 cases were classified as suspect SARS and 67 as probable SARS, according to the latest statistics released by the US CDC.


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