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American Morning

Is the SARS Mystery Solved?

Aired April 02, 2003 - 09:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Has the SARS mystery been solved? Well, the CDC is 90 percent sure that it has found the culprit, a new species of the Corona virus. It could be a breakthrough in fighting the disease, which has sickened more than 1,800 people worldwide. It is also causing false alarms, like this one on a flight from Tokyo yesterday. Five passengers were checked, but found not to have SARS. Vice admiral Richard H. Carmona, U.S. surgeon general. He joins us live this morning Washington with the very latest on the virus.
It's an honor to have you with us this morning. Thanks for joining us, sir.

RICHARD H. CARMONA, ACTING ASST. SECY., HHS: Thank you. Good morning.

ZAHN: Can you tell us what this Corona virus is and what it means that we know what it is?

CARMONA: Well, we -- knowing that it's a virus is certainly important, and knowing how it's transmitted is certainly important, much like the common cold. The doctor taking the lead on this with her colleagues at CDC are attempting to make a definitive diagnosis, or if you will identification, so that we can make some decisions as to, can vaccines be developed? Can therapy be developed, and so on?

ZAHN: Now the researchers have yet to find a medicine, I guess, a drug that treats the illness. Are they on to anything that holds promise?

CARMONA: Well, right now, it's a little bit early to say that, because we don't have the full identification, and there's genomic testing being done so that the specifics, the DNA of the organism, can be identified, and then I think a little bit more research needs to be done to determine if there is some method of innovation that is possible with the drug.

But as you know, with a lot of viral illnesses, like the flu, there is no therapy; you just wait the course of the disease out.

ZAHN: And how do people know they have it?

CARMONA: Well, there's a constellation of signs and symptoms that we look for -- a low-grade fever, cough, respiratory distress, that is difficulty breathing, oxygen, hunger, hypoxia, and if you do go to a doctor, and there's evidence on an X-ray that you had a pneumonia, that would be something else. So a lot of it involves the respiratory system and a fever. ZAHN: As you know, there's been a lot of panic associated with the discovery of the virus as we heard recently in a Hong Kong, almost 15,000 residents were quarantined in a housing development because of concern that the place was contaminated. Is there any way to stop that from happening, or is it pretty reasonable to react like that?

CARMONA: Well, I think what we did early on, as Secretary Thompson put together the best of our people through CDC, and Dr. Gerberdine (ph) sent a lot of our researchers and clinicians overseas to assist the Asian populations who are being affected by this, their response was a reasonable one at the time. They weren't sure what they were doing. As far as the United States, though, we've been able to basically come up with a plan that will allow us to identify and isolate cases when we think that they are infected so we can make sure that there's no further transmission, and so this isolation policy has worked quite well.

ZAHN: And just finally, this morning, sir, what should be the level of concern of an average American who has not traveled to any of these countries where this has been a problem? Should they be worried about this at all?

CARMONA: Well, I think they don't need to be worried. I think all Americans should be concerned, and especially if you have friends or family that have been traveling from the affected countries, from Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore, et cetera, that there should be an awareness, that there is a possibility that this virus can be transmitted in the United States. But for the citizen in the United States, they should just go upon their daily activities every day without a concern and take appropriate precautions, as you would every day, for heightened surveillance, heightened awareness, wash your hands frequently, just as you would to prevent the common cold.

ZAHN: U.S. surgeon general Richard Carmona, I wish you could come up with a way to prevent the common cold. We'd all be very grateful to you if you'd come up with that.

CARMONA: Thanks so much.

ZAHN: Thank you for your time this morning. Appreciate it so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired April 2, 2003 - 09:50   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Has the SARS mystery been solved? Well, the CDC is 90 percent sure that it has found the culprit, a new species of the Corona virus. It could be a breakthrough in fighting the disease, which has sickened more than 1,800 people worldwide. It is also causing false alarms, like this one on a flight from Tokyo yesterday. Five passengers were checked, but found not to have SARS. Vice admiral Richard H. Carmona, U.S. surgeon general. He joins us live this morning Washington with the very latest on the virus.
It's an honor to have you with us this morning. Thanks for joining us, sir.

RICHARD H. CARMONA, ACTING ASST. SECY., HHS: Thank you. Good morning.

ZAHN: Can you tell us what this Corona virus is and what it means that we know what it is?

CARMONA: Well, we -- knowing that it's a virus is certainly important, and knowing how it's transmitted is certainly important, much like the common cold. The doctor taking the lead on this with her colleagues at CDC are attempting to make a definitive diagnosis, or if you will identification, so that we can make some decisions as to, can vaccines be developed? Can therapy be developed, and so on?

ZAHN: Now the researchers have yet to find a medicine, I guess, a drug that treats the illness. Are they on to anything that holds promise?

CARMONA: Well, right now, it's a little bit early to say that, because we don't have the full identification, and there's genomic testing being done so that the specifics, the DNA of the organism, can be identified, and then I think a little bit more research needs to be done to determine if there is some method of innovation that is possible with the drug.

But as you know, with a lot of viral illnesses, like the flu, there is no therapy; you just wait the course of the disease out.

ZAHN: And how do people know they have it?

CARMONA: Well, there's a constellation of signs and symptoms that we look for -- a low-grade fever, cough, respiratory distress, that is difficulty breathing, oxygen, hunger, hypoxia, and if you do go to a doctor, and there's evidence on an X-ray that you had a pneumonia, that would be something else. So a lot of it involves the respiratory system and a fever. ZAHN: As you know, there's been a lot of panic associated with the discovery of the virus as we heard recently in a Hong Kong, almost 15,000 residents were quarantined in a housing development because of concern that the place was contaminated. Is there any way to stop that from happening, or is it pretty reasonable to react like that?

CARMONA: Well, I think what we did early on, as Secretary Thompson put together the best of our people through CDC, and Dr. Gerberdine (ph) sent a lot of our researchers and clinicians overseas to assist the Asian populations who are being affected by this, their response was a reasonable one at the time. They weren't sure what they were doing. As far as the United States, though, we've been able to basically come up with a plan that will allow us to identify and isolate cases when we think that they are infected so we can make sure that there's no further transmission, and so this isolation policy has worked quite well.

ZAHN: And just finally, this morning, sir, what should be the level of concern of an average American who has not traveled to any of these countries where this has been a problem? Should they be worried about this at all?

CARMONA: Well, I think they don't need to be worried. I think all Americans should be concerned, and especially if you have friends or family that have been traveling from the affected countries, from Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore, et cetera, that there should be an awareness, that there is a possibility that this virus can be transmitted in the United States. But for the citizen in the United States, they should just go upon their daily activities every day without a concern and take appropriate precautions, as you would every day, for heightened surveillance, heightened awareness, wash your hands frequently, just as you would to prevent the common cold.

ZAHN: U.S. surgeon general Richard Carmona, I wish you could come up with a way to prevent the common cold. We'd all be very grateful to you if you'd come up with that.

CARMONA: Thanks so much.

ZAHN: Thank you for your time this morning. Appreciate it so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com