Colleges react to SARS threat

With more than 4,800 suspected cases and 293 deaths worldwide caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, universities across the country are taking precautions to protect their students. A biology professor at Brown University and two students at U.S. universities are showing symptoms of SARS, and officials at IU's health center are telling IU students they have no need to worry.\nHugh Jessop, representative for the IU Health Center, said a few students have come in claiming to be infected with SARS, but no cases turned out to be positive. \nIn case of an outbreak, Jessop said students would be quarantined in the health center's negative pressure room, purchased in 1996 as a result of several tuberculosis infections, which uses a special filtering system to make sure communicable disease will not spread.\nAccording to reports published by the Chronicle of Higher Education, several universities across the country have experienced suspected SARS cases:\nAt Brown University, a female professor, which Brown declined to identify, was quarantined at her house last week after she developed signs of SARS following a trip to Toronto. \nHealth officials at Brown are mandating the ten students and faculty members who were in close contact with the professor monitor their health by taking their temperature twice a day and reporting the results to the health center. The possibly infected students and faculty were told if they did not develop symptoms by May 1, the last day of the theorized 10-day incubation period for SARS, then they should be fine.\nBoth Syracuse University and Seton Hall University have also experienced possible SARS infections in students.\nAt Seton Hall, a female student showed symptoms of a fever and upper respiratory infection in early April. Her father, who was later diagnosed with SARS, visited her in her residence hall room shortly before that, which led university officials to suspect the viral infection.\nOfficials at Seton Hall reported the student no longer shows such symptoms, and laboratory tests confirming whether or not she had SARS are expected soon.\nAt Syracuse, a 19-year-old male student reported suffering respiratory symptoms after returning from a weekend trip to Toronto with his fraternity, but no other members who traveled with him have reported experiencing any symptoms.\nWith such recent SARS suspicions on U.S. campuses, fears run high. According to the Associated Press, 43 percent of Americans are now worried about the disease -- up one third from the week before, as revealed in a new Gallup poll.\nStill, Jessop said there is not much to fear.\n"We have 36,000 die of the flu every year," he said. "But we get wound up because of SARS, when nobody in the U.S. has died from it."\nJessop said part of the reason why so many Americans are concerned with SARS is that the media has been giving so much coverage to SARS recently.\nIn order to calm students' fears, the health center has tried to educate students about the measures taken to prepare IU for possible infections.\nIUB Chancellor Sharon Brehm sent an e-mail to all Bloomington students to inform students about where to find updates online about SARS at www.indiana.edu/~health/sars.html.\nBrehm also formed a committee of IU medical experts to make policy decisions regarding SARS.\n"The University committee convened for this purpose will continue tracking developments related to SARS, develop strategies for SARS-related public health management at the University, and share information with the University community," said IU health center medical director Robert Hongen in a statement.\nOn April 2, the IU Office of Overseas Studies, along with the Kelley School of Business, recommended that IUB students currently in Hong Kong and China return home to the United States. At IU-Purdue University Indianapolis, the School of Law, the Herron School of Art and the Kelley School of Business decided to cancel their summer programs in China.\nAlthough SARS might not be a threat at IU, some see it as a threat to international relations.\nPolitical Science professor William R. Thompson said the spread of the disease will only further the gap between the United States and developing nations.\n"There always have been more communicable diseases spread in developing countries as opposed to other places," he said. "This, of course, affects trade and development."\nStill, Jessop said there is no reason for IU students to panic.\n"None of these cases at college campuses have been confirmed," he said. "Just because someone shows the symptoms does not mean they have the disease"