(March 31, 2003) -- Los Angeles County Director of Public Health and Health Officer Dr. Jonathan Fielding has told LBReport.com that L.A. County now has seven suspected cases of the severe flu/pneumonia SARS (Severe Atypical Respiratory Syndrome).

As separately reported by LBReport.com, the CDC reported that as of March 28, CA had twelve suspected SARS cases under investigation, the largest number of any state..

Noting the large number of CA cases, CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding noted in a March 29 teleconference that the largest number of CA patients is "not surprising since California is one of our largest states, but that's also a point of a lot of travel to Asia and so it makes demographic sense, that that would be an area where there would be perhaps an increased risk." She said there were 62 suspected SARS cases nationally on Mar. 29.

The CDC has not said where in CA the twelve (Mar. 28) suspected SARS cases are...and Dr. Fielding declined to say where in L.A. County the seven (Mar. 31) suspected cases are.

On March 21, CA had six suspected cases...and on March 17, L.A. County reported investigating one suspected case.

The CDC website (www.cdc.gov) devotes a special page to detailed information on SARS. Readers should check the CDC SARS page for updates on this rapidly developing story.