*EPF213 05/06/2003
CDC Lowers SARS Travel Warnings for Singapore, Vietnam
(Decision comes in response to effective disease control measures) (530)

By Charlene Porter
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is downgrading its travel advisories for Vietnam and Singapore, finding that these Asian nations have successfully contained their outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

An advisory is a CDC recommendation that travelers should avoid all but essential trips to a destination. An alert provides travelers with information about a health concern in a given place, and suggests some precautions be taken.

CDC Director Julie Gerberding announced at a press briefing May 6 that the advisory to avoid nonessential travel to Singapore is being lowered to alert status. The U.S. health agency also issued a press release May 5 downgrading its advisory about travel to Vietnam. That action followed a World Health Organization (WHO) finding April 28 that Vietnam was the first nation to contain its outbreak. Quick action by Vietnamese health officials is credited for preventing the spread of the viral-caused illness beyond 63 patients.

In both countries, the CDC decision is based on a couple of factors. No new cases have been reported in more than 20 days, a period that is considered twice the length of the normal incubation period for the coronavirus that causes the sometimes-fatal SARS. Also, CDC experts have determined that the cases have been confined to certain households or settings without an unexplained transmission rampant through the population. Further, they have found that local health officials have put in place adequate surveillance to stop further transmission and contain the outbreak.

The CDC is still advising travelers who do go to Singapore and Vietnam to avoid health care settings that have been hotspots for SARS transmission in the nations where the disease has been most virulent.

Gerberding said the CDC's strongest SARS travel warning is now in place only for mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

At the May 6 briefing, Gerberding said that while the signs of SARS containment in some areas is good news, the continued transmission in other areas is "sobering." She said Chinese health officials are working to "aggressively control" the disease and she remains optimistic that the measures will be effective.

Gerberding also attempted to quell any alarm about recent reports indicating that the coronavirus can exist on hard surfaces for 24 hours or more. These findings have raised some concerns that transmission could occur through a common touch on a doorknob, an elevator button or a subway strap. Gerberding said that the longevity of the virus is occurring in "artificial situations," and while these experiments must be conducted, she said they don't necessarily provide definitive information about how the disease moves through populations.

Gerberding recalled a similar period of experimentation two decades ago when medical researchers were just learning about how the HIV virus was passed from person to person. "We learned early on that live virus could be recovered from surfaces with HIV, but we also know that was not a significant means of transmission." She said CDC officials remain confident that face-to-face transmission is still the most likely means of SARS transmission.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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