The researchers noted that the virus probably came from students or other travelers from Britain, where there was a larger outbreak of the same strain.
The public health system worked well in containing the deliberate spread of anthrax but is inadequately prepared for a larger outbreak, state and local health department officials said at the close of a meeting here today.
He said he based his opinion on experience from the last and larger outbreak, which began with a single elderly immigrant woman and spread to over 250 people, but never spread into the general community.
Doctors at hospitals here say they have supplies to deal with the current cholera outbreak but will not have the fluid and drugs needed to cope with a larger outbreak.
B7 IN ATLANTA -- State and local health department officials said the public health system worked well in containing the deliberate spread of anthrax but was inadequately prepared for a larger outbreak.
That is in part because even a single case could be a harbinger of a larger outbreak and in part because even one case would undoubtedly spark panic and a clamor for vaccine.
The three cases of SARS that have been identified here so far this winter appear to represent a milder strain of the disease, and the public health system seems well prepared to prevent a larger outbreak, a senior World Health Organization investigator said here on Friday.
Scientists do not know where it came from, where the virus exists in nature, why it has appeared now, how people are being exposed to it, or whether it is becoming more contagious and could erupt into a much larger outbreak, as SARS did.
In general, nodes that are more central give larger outbreak sizes.
In Singapore, the first local outbreak of chikungunya was reported in January 2008, followed by a larger outbreak occurred in August 2008.
One of the main puzzles is whether the recent flare-ups are all part of one larger outbreak that is spreading through the forest from animal to animal, or whether each cluster stems from an independent introduction of the virus from its elusive host.
