May/June 2003 • Collective Soul: The Designers of Idar • Tanzanian Ruby Mine Brings Hope • Markets: Selling Naked Gems • News & Updates • In This Issue

Vegas Shows Implement SARS Protection
By Morgan Beard · Editor-in-Chief

Responding to concerns about Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the promoters of the upcoming JCK Show in Las Vegas have implemented the following precautions against the spread of SARS.

• Visitors from countries with travel advisories (including Hong Kong, mainland China, Taiwan, and Singapore) will arrive 10 days prior to the show.

• Before they attend the show, visitors will be required to get a medical report from a U.S. doctor. (Hong Kong exhibitors will also be tested before they leave to come to the show.)

• Every day they are at the show, exhibitors will have their body temperature measured for signs of fever.

• Doctors will be on-site to handle any inquiries about SARS.

These measures were developed in cooperation with the Hong Kong Jewelry Manufacturers Association, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At The JCK Show, these precautions apply to all attendees, both buyers and exhibitors; show management estimates that approximately 1,200 people will be affected.

The Gem and Lapidary Dealers Association show, to be held at the Mirage Casino-Hotel for the three days prior to the opening of The JCK Show, will be instituting identical measures for the exhibitors in their Hong Kong pavilion.

In a "Guidance for Mass Gatherings" released May 15, the WHO gave the following guidelines for group events where participants may be coming from infected countries:

"Over the past few weeks, the enormous amount of information now available on SARS and the increasing awareness of the general public of SARS may have led to irrational behaviour and the exclusion of people coming from an area with recent local transmission of SARS.

"According to the information now available, only persons with symptoms are contagious and can transmit the disease, and close contact is required for transmission. Close contact means having cared for, lived with, or had direct contact with the respirator secretions or body fluids of a suspect or probable case of SARS.

". . . A person who is symptom free and has not been in close contact with a suspected SARS patient may freely be welcomed without any other measures. However, he or she should remain vigilant, and if symptoms develop within 10 days of arrival, contact the Medical Service of the hosting Organization/Institution in the country."

Posted: May 16, 2003