Los Angeles International increases SARS screening, education LOS ANGELES (AP) =97 Screening of airline passengers for symptoms of severe= =20 acute respiratory syndrome and distribution of health alert notices have=20 been increased at Los Angeles International Airport, officials said Friday= =20 as they sought to assure travelers that they can fly safely. The=20 potentially fatal illness is believed to have originated in the Guangdong=20 province of China and spread to other nations via travel. Los Angeles=20 International has about 25 flights arriving daily directly from Asia and=20 another 25 arriving after stops elsewhere in the country. All but one of=20 the seven suspected cases of SARS in Los Angeles County were linked to=20 travel to Asia, mostly through Los Angeles International Airport, said Dr.= =20 Jonathan Fielding, director of public health and county health officer. One= =20 case was transmitted within a household. Most flights arriving from Asian=20 airports are being screened for possible cases and all passengers arriving= =20 from Asia are being given health alert notices about SARS, officials=20 said. But no suspected cases of SARS have been reported at the airport,=20 and workers were not being encouraged to wear masks, said Paul Green, chief= =20 operating officer of Los Angeles World Airports. "We think that travelers need not be concerned about becoming ill during=20 their normal travels," Mayor James Hahn told an airport press conference.=20 As the outbreak was reported in recent weeks, passenger loads on flights in= =20 and out of the airport's Bradley International Terminal have dropped from=20 an average of 70% full to about half full, Green said. Officials, however,= =20 could not say whether concerns about the mysterious illness were the cause= =20 of the decline because the time span coincided with the U.S.-led war=20 against Iraq. "Obviously we are concerned about pressure on our revenue,"=20 Green said, but he predicted no layoffs. Extra workers were in the=20 international terminal passing out health alert notices written in English,= =20 Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Japanese. The airport serves flights from=20 China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Korea, the Philippines,=20 Thailand and Malaysia. Green said that if an arriving passenger was discovered with symptoms, the= =20 plane would not be taken to an isolated part of the field, Rather, it would= =20 come directly to the gate and be met by medical personnel. Earlier this=20 week an airliner arriving at San Jose, Calif., was kept away from the gate= =20 after the pilot reported suspected SARS cases on board. None turned out to= =20 be the illness. Also appearing at the press conference were officials from= =20 the Coast Guard and Port of Los Angeles, where special measures are in=20 place to screen arriving cargo and cruise ships. Ships on which a crew=20 member or a passenger shows symptoms of SARS are required to give notice to= =20 port officials when they are 96 hours from port, update the notice at 48=20 hours and provide a third verification two hours out, said Noel Cunningham,= =20 chief of port police. Boarding teams have also been trained to recognize=20 the symptoms, said Coast Guard official George Cummings. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.carstt.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************