CDC Infection Specialist possibly sick with SARS

ATLANTA � A disease expert working to control the spread of SARS (search) in Taiwan will be flown to an Atlanta hospital after showing symptoms of the virus, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (search) said Thursday.





CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding (search) wouldn't identify the agency's employee, who became ill with a suspected case of SARS. But she said the man was an infection control expert who had been in Taiwan for a few days to evaluate hospital infection controls against the disease.

If the physician does have the respiratory virus, it would be the first time a disease investigator has become ill from SARS since Dr. Carlo Urbani died from the virus in the early days of the epidemic, according to the World Health Organization.

www.foxnews.com...

On a related note I read a Hong Kong University source today which claims that they have found the source of the virus in humans.

The claim has always been that SARS crossed over from the animal kingdom.

HKU claims to have discovered that the "edible" cat (or civet cat) was the host animal.

Unfortunately I lost the flaming link. If I can be bothered I will try to hunt it down and post it here.