Hawaii deemed
to be free of SARSThe sixth and last person
thought to have the illness
is healthy and active
Hawaii's sixth suspected case of severe acute respiratory syndrome has been eliminated from the state Health Department's list after preliminary tests were negative.
That means the state has no suspected cases of the highly contagious, sometimes fatal, disease.
A man who arrived here April 22 from Shanghai was treated the next morning for mild respiratory symptoms and isolated at home by state health officials until May 10.
Blood samples were taken Thursday for more tests, but preliminary tests by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were negative, said department spokeswoman Laura Lott.
She said the man is healthy and "out and about" and no one in the household has symptoms of SARS.
Five earlier suspected cases were ruled out.
State epidemiologists continue to monitor 45 medical facilities daily for potential SARS cases.
They have looked into a few situations with possible symptoms, but no new suspected cases have turned up, Lott said.
The world death toll stands at 662 with more than 7,800 people who have been infected -- mostly in Asia -- since the disease first surfaced in southern China in November. The United States has recorded no deaths out of 67 SARS cases reported to the World Health Organization.
In other SARS news yesterday, the WHO said that only 16 infected with SARS got the disease while aboard an airplane and that all of those cases came before airlines began screening passengers for symptoms.
The WHO also removed the Philippines from its list of areas where patients recently contracted the virus. The last patient to be infected there was isolated by health officials on April 30, indicating that local spread of the disease has been stopped, the WHO said in a statement.
The Associated Press and Bloomberg News contributed to this report.
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Centers for Disease Control
World Health Organization
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