Nevada doctors warned to be on lookout for unusual illnesses.(news)

BYLINE: JOELLE BABULA REVIEW-JOURNAL

Nevada doctors are on alert to spot and immediately report unexplainable symptoms of disease, such as the sudden onset of severe pneumonia, coughing up blood, turning blue and fluid-filled lungs.

Alerted to the potential for a biological attack in the United States, doctors nationwide are quickly learning how to detect symptoms of six diseases in particular. These are botulism, plague, smallpox, tularemia, anthrax and viral hemorrhagic fevers, primarily ebola.

These six diseases are the most feared by both doctors and government officials because of their high fatality rates.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday warned doctors nationwide to be on the lookout for unusual illnesses that may be caused by the release of a biological weapon designed to spread any of the six diseases.

Nevada doctors are looking for clusters of disease, strange disease patterns, or the sudden onset of disease in otherwise healthy people, said Dr. Dale Carrison, director of University Medical Center's emergency department.

"What I care about is if I get somebody that's a healthy person, and all of a sudden they have severe pneumonia," Carrison said. "If I can find no reason for that, then I'm going to the Health District."

Las Vegas doctors, nurses and health care workers are instructed to immediately report any unusual illnesses to the Clark County Health District. If the district deems the illness suspicious, it will immediately be reported to the state health division. From there, the CDC and FBI will be alerted.

Every licensed physician in the county, as well as all area hospitals and clinics, can be…