Nine at Texas Air Base Quarantined on SARS Concern

Tyvek · **Fri Jul 11, 2003 3:43 pm Nine at Texas Air Base Quarantined on SARS Concern**

Nine at Texas Air Base Quarantined on SARS Concern

Updated 4:03 PM ET July 11, 2003

By Jon Herskovitz

DALLAS (Reuters) - Nine people at Dyess Air Force Base in the Texas city of Abilene have been quarantined as a precaution for possible exposure to SARS, but they do not appear to have the disease, an air base spokeswoman said on Friday.

"At this time, no one has been diagnosed as having SARS," said Lt. Jennifer Donovan. She declined to say whether those in quarantine were military or civilian personnel.

Some of the nine had shown some symptoms associated with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, such as fever and coughing and the group had passed through Toronto's airport the day after the city was removed from the World Health Organization's list of SARS-affected areas.

The Canadian province of Ontario, where Toronto is located, was the only location outside Asia on the WHO's list of SARS-affected areas, and the WHO declared Toronto free of the deadly respiratory illness on July 2.

But some of the nine quarantined were attending a military function in Ontario and had arrived in the province prior to it being removed from the WHO's list of SARS-affected areas, a base spokeswoman said.

"There is no cause for alarm," Donovan said. "We would like to take extra precautions in order to ensure the safety of the people of Dyess and of the general population."

The air base is located about 185 miles west of Dallas. The nine are being treated by medical personnel as they have been quarantined at their homes since earlier this week, the spokeswoman said.

Base officials did not release any information about nine people, citing privacy concerns.

Ontario Premier Ernie Eves, talking to reporters in Prince Edward Island, a Canadian province, said he thought it highly unlikely the nine people quarantined at the Texas air base were infected with SARS.

"I am concerned that people act and do things before they have the facts," Eves said. "I certainly don't think anyone should jump to conclusions that it is in any way, shape or form SARS or that it in any, way, shape or form originated in a two-hour stay in (Toronto's) Pearson International Airport." (With additional reporting by Rajiv Sekhri in Toronto)