SARS Compels University To Issue Travel Advisory

Joining national and international health organizations in calling for restricted travel to areas afflicted by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Harvard issued an advisory on Friday recommending a moratorium on University-related trips to East Asia.

Although some University programs have shaped their plans according to the warning, students studying abroad and faculty who do research in Asia have not made major changes to their plans, professors and administrators say.

The advisory coincided with a flurry of headlines in the regional media about a Harvard epidemiologist’s prediction of how SARS could potentially impact the Boston area.

In a highly-publicized Friday briefing for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., infectious disease experts from Harvard Medical School said that if just one SARS case came to the Boston area, nearly 3 million infections and 100,000 deaths could result within six months.

To date, SARS has resulted in 2,601 reported cases and 100 deaths worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Four cases have been reported in Massachusetts alone, according to David S. Rosenthal ’59, director of Harvard University Health Services (UHS).

Harvard’s advisory warned affiliates to refrain from traveling to China, Singapore and Vietnam, in accordance with precautions recommended by WHO and the Center for Disease Control (CDC).

Rosenthal said that even if travelers do not contract SARS while abroad, they might be detained and prevented from returning due to fears about spreading the virus.

“The issue is they may get stuck in a quarantine, and I even have concerns about whether they will be allowed to come back here,” Rosenthal said.

travel plans immediately, according to chair Philip A. Kuhn.

“[The advisory] is a request and not a mandate. We who deal with Asia may have occasion to visit those areas for University business,” Kuhn said.

He said more than a dozen undergraduates and at least half of the department’s faculty go abroad to East Asia each year, and the department has not yet heard of anyone personally affected by SARS.

“I believe SARS should be taken seriously, on the other hand, we sometimes have to run risks in the pursuit of our duties,” said Kuhn, who said he just returned from Hong Kong.

According to Wolcowitz, a five-week Harvard Summer School Program in Shanghai was cancelled because of the SARS warnings.

And administrators at the Office of Career Services (OCS) say they will advise students who win travel fellowships to avoid East Asia.

“There wasn’t much opportunity to talk to students before they submitted the application,” said Paul A. Bohlmann, director of fellowships at OCS.

During the selection process, he said, OCS administrators plan to make decisions without regard to the applicant’s proposed itinerary.

“If we decide the best applicant wanted to go to Thailand, we would have a conversation with the student...and work with the student to develop an [alternate] plan,” he said.

SARS warnings may mean adjusted summer plans for many student groups, as well.

The Krokodiloes will take SARS warnings into consideration when planning stops on their annual tour, said tour manager Rex G. Baker ’05.

“Obviously the safety of the members is of paramount importance.... We are in constant communication with our contact in Asia and also with people in the CDC,” Baker said. “We have developed a number of alternatives should the situation not improve.”

Although Rosenthal said there are no reported cases of SARS at the University, many have been on high alert.

A first-year who spoke to The Crimson on condition of anonymity said he spent his spring break in China and he stayed in a hotel for a few days upon his return because his roommates were concerned that he had contracted SARS during his trip.

“For the comfort of my entryway and my roommates I said I’d spend a little time in a hotel,” he said. “But I’m back in my room now feeling fine.”

Symptoms of SARS include a sudden onset of high fever, dry cough and shortness of breath, the WHO website said, and it is spread through direct contact with an infected person’s secretions.

But the medical community is bewildered by SARS, which has few unique symptoms.

“Right now we’re working with a case definition that defines SARS in terms of a fever plus travel to or from Asia, or contact with someone [showing] symptoms who has been traveling,” said Harvard Medical School Professor of Pediatrics Kenneth McIntosh ’58.

“We don’t yet have any sort of diagnostic test that can tell us when someone has the virus,” said McIntosh, a virus expert. “But the test shouldn’t be that long in coming.”

As of April 7, 1,263 SARS cases have been reported in China, 883 in Hong Kong, 141 in the United States, 106 in Singapore, 90 in Canada and 62 in Vietnam.

No deaths have been reported in the United States, according the WHO website.

—Staff writer Hana R. Alberts can be reached at alberts@fas.harvard.edu.