Additional reporting by Nadia el-Awadi, IOL Staff

WASHINGTON , April 3 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The United States said Thursday, April 3, it would pay for U.S. diplomats and their families to leave China , due to fears of the rampant spread of SARS, amid unconfirmed reports of SARS cases in Kuwait the Gulf.

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told lawmakers he would approve a request to expand the State Department's so-called "authorized departure" program from the consulates in Hong Kong and Guangzhou to Washington's other four diplomatic missions in China.

A State Department official said shortly afterward that the expansion had already been approved and meant that non-essential U.S. diplomats and the families of all embassy and consulate personnel would be allowed to leave at government expense, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The spokesman for the Kuwaiti Ministry of Defense, Colonel Yousef Al-Mulla, denied Tuesday, April 1, that three Kuwaiti military personnel have been isolated after being infected by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), reported the Kuwaiti Arab Times.

A Kuwaiti local daily newspaper had quoted military sources as saying that the Military Hospital had isolated three military personnel who were being treated in an isolated wing of the hospital after being diagnosed with the disease.

The Director of the Military Hospital , Colonel Ali Al-Essa, assured citizens and expatriates that there are no such cases in the hospital and confirmed that the news report was untrue and baseless.

The Arab Times also noted that in another incident, another Kuwaiti man whose identity has been withheld has also been quarantined at Ibn Sina hospital after it was discovered that he was suffering from a suspicious respiratory ailment.

A medical source told Al-Watan daily that a technical committee, assigned to study the case at Ibn Sina, is conducting tests to identify the type of infection the man is suffering from.

The first case of the deadly disease was reported last February 26, when a man was admitted to hospital in Hanoi , Vietnam , with high fever, dry cough, myalgia (muscle soreness) and mild sore throat. Over the next four days he developed increasing breathing difficulties, severe thrombocytopenia (low platelet count) and signs of adult respiratory distress syndrome requiring ventilator support.

The total number of cases reported to the World Health Organization as of April 2nd has been 2223 cases from 18 countries around the globe with 78 deaths as of Wednesday.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported Wednesday that there were 85 cases of the disease in the United States .

In an interesting development Tuesday, possibly indicating the extent of paranoia beginning to affect the United States, American Airlines flight number 128 bound to San Jose from Tokyo was detained on the tarmac for two hours after two passengers and two crewmembers, plus a fifth unidentified person, reported to the crew that they had symptoms similar to those of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.  None of the cases, however, proved to be the deadly virus, and all passengers were allowed to leave.

27 US states have reported suspected cases so far, some of which have deployed active units to the Gulf.  The largest number of cases has been reported in California (19) and New York (13), with fewer numbers reported in Hawaii (4), Massachusetts (4), Utah (4) and Washington (4).

The World Health Organization says that the main symptoms of SARS are high fever (> 38° Celsius), dry cough, and shortness of breath or breathing difficulties. Changes in chest X-rays indicative of pneumonia also occur. SARS may also be associated with other symptoms including headache, muscular stiffness, loss of appetite, malaise, confusion, rash and diarrhea.

Based on currently available evidence, close contact with an infected person is needed for the infective agent to spread from one person to another. Contact with aerosolized (exhaled) droplets and bodily secretions from an infected person appears to be important. To date, the majority of cases have occurred in hospital workers who have cared for SARS patients and the close family members of these patients. However, the amount of the infective agent needed to cause an infection has not yet been determined.

SARS appears to be less infectious than influenza. The incubation period is short, estimated to range from 2-7 days, with 3-5 days being more common. However, the speed of international travel creates a risk that cases can rapidly spread around the world.

The infective agent responsible for causing the disease is yet to be identified.  Scientists have detected a previously unrecognized coronavirus in patients with SARS. While the new coronavirus is still the leading hypothesis for the cause of SARS, other viruses are still under investigation as potential causes.

The World Health Organization issued a statement on their website saying there were no indications that the outbreak was linked to bioterrorism.

Dr. Nadia Tilib, Officer in Charge of Epidemic Surveillance and Response for the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office, told IslamOnline today that there have been no reports as of yet of any SARS cases in the Eastern Mediterranean region.  According to Tilib, there were reports of some cases of pneumonia in 2 Gulf countries that turned out to be unlinked in any way to SARS.

In response to a question related to the outflux of Kuwaitis to Thailand at the beginning of the war and their subsequent return, Tilib explained that due to the fact that the number of cases in Thailand has been small, there have been no worries in Kuwait as to the contraction of the disease.  Nevertheless, the Kuwaiti authorities have taken all necessary precautions.

Tilib explained that until now all cases of SARS are considered suspected cases and that it is impossible to confirm the disease at the present time.

The World Health Organization has issued instructions to all countries with flight plans to affected areas to screen passengers upon departure.  The screening process involves asking passengers whether or not they have any symptoms indicative of the disease and whether or not they have had contact with suspected cases, according to Tilib.

Four countries have been designated so far as having continuous transmission of the disease.  These include China , Hong Kong , Vietnam and Canada .

“Any person with fever is advised not to fly,” said Tilib.  “Cabin crews should look for suspected cases and have been instructed on how to isolate suspected cases, how to take care of the other passengers and how to disinfect the plane,” she explained.

SARS is differentiated from influenza by the great respiratory distress that accompanies the illness.  The disease progresses rapidly to pneumonia.