Adopted Orlando baby newest SARS case
BY CONNIE PRATER
cprater@herald.com

Florida's latest SARS case is an Orlando-area baby whose parents defied travel warnings and went to the hardest-hit area of China to adopt. She is the state's second probable case of severe acute respiratory syndrome; there are 14 additional suspected cases.

The girl, who is less than a year old, left the hospital Friday. She and her parents are being monitored at home, said Dr. Landis Crockett, director of disease control for the Florida Department of Health.

''The child was not symptomatic on the flight returning, so that lowers the risk of it having spread to others,'' said Bill Toth, a spokesman for the Orange County Health Department, who confirmed the child had been adopted.

A U.S. State Department spokesman said Friday that there is no plan to discontinue issuing visas for U.S.-Chinese adoptions, which average 5,000 a year. Parents who adopt in China must go to the U.S. consular office in Guangdong Province to apply for visas to return with the children.

Guangdong is ground zero for SARS -- the province where scientists believe the mysterious flu-like virus originated in November. With 1,359 probable cases as of Friday, Guangdong has the highest concentration of SARS cases in China, according to the Chinese Ministry of Health. Stuart Patt, a State Department spokesman in Washington, said China is the largest source of U.S. foreign adoptions.

PROCEDURES CHANGED

Since the SARS outbreak, the State Department has changed its visa processing procedure at the consulate, Patt said. Now, instead of both adoptive parents having to appear at the Guangdong consulate office with the baby to apply for a visa, only one parent has to go. The change was implemented ''to reduce the traffic in the consulate and reduce the number of people who might be in close contact,'' Patt said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's most recent travel advisory warns against any nonessential trips to mainland China, Hong Kong, Hanoi, Vietnam and Singapore. It also cautions against traveling to Toronto, site of the largest outbreak of cases outside of Asia.

For those parents seeking to adopt Chinese children, however, the warnings are going unheeded. Many have waited two years or more to adopt and have paid as much as $10,000.

''What it comes down to is once you see the picture of the child, that child is your child,'' said Filis Casey, executive director of the Alliance for Children, a Massachusetts-based adoption agency that handles about 200 international adoptions a year. ``It's like every other parent -- you'd walk through fire for your kid.''

Casey has six U.S. families waiting for travel approval from Beijing. When they get it, they'll fly to Guangdong, she said.

BE ON THE ALERT

The CDC hasn't clamped down on adoptive parents traveling to Asia. But CDC officials issued a special warning for parents to be on the alert for fever or respiratory illness when they return and to contact a doctor if anything arises.

Said Toth, the Orange County health official: ``I firmly agree with the concept that if you don't need to go, you shouldn't.''

The Orlando-area child developed symptoms earlier this week. A chest X-ray showed evidence of pneumonia, a key criteria for making her a probable SARS case.

Her parents were not sick, but they and others who had contact with the child were being monitored by public health workers, said Crockett, the state epidemiologist.

There are two classes of SARS cases -- probable and suspected. Probable cases involve X-rays of serious respiratory illness. Suspected cases involve a fever of 100.5 degrees or higher, respiratory problems and travel to the affected countries or contact with someone who had.

14 SUSPECTED CASES

Florida has 14 suspected and two probable cases. The other probable case was identified Wednesday as a 60-year-old woman from the Panhandle who returned from China with a tour group on April 9 and developed symptoms.

The only other toddler in Florida suspected of having SARS is a 1-year-old Collier County girl. Health officials declined to say whether she too had been adopted, citing medical privacy.

Herald researcher Elisabeth Donavan contributed to this report.