Eastern Iowa man tested for SARS, proves negative

A man was tested in eastern Iowa, but state officials say there still haven’t been any cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or “SARS” in Iowa. The disease has killed a reported 110 people in China. A potential case earlier this year was revisited after a man’s doctor realized he’d returned from Asia before complaining of illness, but the state public-health department’s Kevin Teale says the agency did its detective work. The department has been in contact with eastern Iowa medical officials regarding a man who’d come in with pneumonia after he traveled to Asia but he had a common kind of pneumonia that’s seen “all winter long” in many patients, so they don’t think he had SARS. For people wondering, Teale says it’s not likely there’s been a case the doctors missed. In order to be considered a SARS case they have specific criteria and no Iowa patient has met those. The disease has only infected Americans who’ve traveled to Hong Kong, Singapore, or one of the other Asian “hot spots” where it’s known to infect people. The eastern Iowa man who complained of pneumonia symptoms in February has since recovered.