Mystery illness spreads
Researchers focusing on form of coronavirus
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Wearing protective masks, Hong Kong residents line up to get more of them on Friday.
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Hong Kong residents are wearing face masks to avoid catching a severe new pneumonia that has infected hundreds and can kill. CNN's Andrew Brown reports. (March 27)
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ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The mystery illness that was first identified in recent weeks in Asia appears to be continuing to spread, both in the United States and elsewhere, and researchers are continuing to close in on a previously unrecognized form of coronavirus as the cause, federal health authorities said Thursday.
In the United States, 51 suspected cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome have been identified, up from 45 Wednesday, said Dr. Jim Hughes, director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Forty-four of the cases are associated with travel to areas of the world where transmission is known to be occurring, he said. Five others occurred among people who were in contact with the suspected cases and the two others were health workers who cared for the ill.
None of the suspected cases in the United States has been fatal.
Fourteen of the 51 had pneumonia, and only one needed to be put on a ventilator.
"We're seeing ... milder cases overall than people in Asia are encountering," Hughes said.
Excluding the U.S. cases, the World Health Organization is reporting 1,408 suspected cases, including 53 deaths, in 12 countries and 14 geographic areas. That translates into nearly a 4 percent mortality rate.
"We're encouraged that many of these patients with SARS are improving," Hughes told reporters. "In spite of that, we know that this is a very severe illness."
Evidence pointing to a previously unrecognized form of coronavirus continues to mount, he said.
"We're not prepared to say it's definitive evidence yet," he said. "Much work remains to be done, but the preponderance of the evidence is consistent with a previously unrecognized coronavirus playing an important role."
Coronavirus is a family of viruses that includes two known to infect humans. They are blamed for about a third of all common colds.
SARS patients have not responded to treatment with the usual anti-pneumonia drugs, such as antibiotics or antiviral agents.
