Fears of a mystery illness on an airliner in California turned out to be false, but the cautious reaction by officials suggested that serious concerns about the disease have made their way to U.S. shores.
An American Airlines flight from Tokyo that landed in San Jose, Calif., briefly was halted on the tarmac after the captain reported five people on board appeared to have symptoms of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.
None of the five has the disease, which has been blamed for about 2,200 cases and at least 78 deaths worldwide. Seventy cases of the illness are suspected in the United States, but no one has died.
The disease has been spreading rapidly in Asia, and the World Health Organization, the U.N.-
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Malcolm Ritter
