“There wasn’t much opportunity to talk to students before they submitted the application,” said Paul A. Bohlmann, director of fellowships at OCS.
During the selection process, he said, OCS administrators plan to make decisions without regard to the applicant’s proposed itinerary.
“If we decide the best applicant wanted to go to Thailand, we would have a conversation with the student...and work with the student to develop an [alternate] plan,” he said.
SARS warnings may mean adjusted summer plans for many student groups, as well.
The Krokodiloes will take SARS warnings into consideration when planning stops on their annual tour, said tour manager Rex G. Baker ’05.
“Obviously the safety of the members is of paramount importance.... We are in constant communication with our contact in Asia and also with people in the CDC,” Baker said. “We have developed a number of alternatives should the situation not improve.”
Although Rosenthal said there are no reported cases of SARS at the University, many have been on high alert.
A first-year who spoke to The Crimson on condition of anonymity said he spent his spring break in China and he stayed in a hotel for a few days upon his return because his roommates were concerned that he had contracted SARS during his trip.
“For the comfort of my entryway and my roommates I said I’d spend a little time in a hotel,” he said. “But I’m back in my room now feeling fine.”
Symptoms of SARS include a sudden onset of high fever, dry cough and shortness of breath, the WHO website said, and it is spread through direct contact with an infected person’s secretions.
But the medical community is bewildered by SARS, which has few unique symptoms.
“Right now we’re working with a case definition that defines SARS in terms of a fever plus travel to or from Asia, or contact with someone [showing] symptoms who has been traveling,” said Harvard Medical School Professor of Pediatrics Kenneth McIntosh ’58.
“We don’t yet have any sort of diagnostic test that can tell us when someone has the virus,” said McIntosh, a virus expert. “But the test shouldn’t be that long in coming.”
As of April 7, 1,263 SARS cases have been reported in China, 883 in Hong Kong, 141 in the United States, 106 in Singapore, 90 in Canada and 62 in Vietnam.
No deaths have been reported in the United States, according the WHO website.
—Staff writer Hana R. Alberts can be reached at alberts@fas.harvard.edu.