SARS: epidemiology

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) originated in Southern China in November 2002, and was brought to Hong Kong in February 2003. From Hong Kong, the disease spread rapidly worldwide but mostly to Asian countries. At the end of the epidemic in June, the global cumulative total was 8422 cases with 916 deaths (case fatality rate of 11%). People of all ages were affected, but predominantly females. Health care workers were at high risk and accounted for one‐fifth of all cases. Risk factors for death included old age and comorbid illnesses, especially diabetes. The disease is caused by a novel coronavirus and is transmitted by droplets or direct inoculation from contact with infected surfaces. Contaminated sewage was found to be responsible for the outbreak in a housing estate in Hong Kong affecting over 300 residents. The mean incubation period was 6.4 days (range 2–10). The duration between onset of symptoms and hospitalisation was from 3 to 5 days. The relatively prolonged incubation period allowed asymptomatic air travellers to spread the disease globally. The number of individuals infected by each case has been estimated to be 2.7. Effective control of nosocomial transmission included early detection of disease, strict isolation of patients, practice of droplet and contact precautions and compliance with the use of personal protective equipment. Effective control of disease spread in the community included tracing and quarantine of contacts. Development of a validated diagnostic test and an effective vaccine as well as elimination of possible animal reservoirs are measures needed to prevent another epidemic.

Synthetic Reconstruction of Zoonotic and Early Human Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Isolates That Produce Fatal Disease in Aged Mice

“…Mice died of ARDS characterized by DAD and hyaline membrane formation within 3 to 4 days after intranasal infection (8,12). Both the development of ARDS and the increased pathogenic phenotype in older individuals are in complete agreement with data from human SARS-CoV cases (5,33). Two phases have been identified during SARS-CoV infection in humans (41).…”

“…Old age (over 60 years) was found to be significantly associated with SARS-related deaths (5,33). Death from SARS-CoV infection is most often due to rapidly progressive respiratory compromise (acute respiratory distress syndrome [ARDS]) and subsequent failure of multiple organs (50), and age is the only factor associated with the development of ARDS (4).…”

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome: Global Outbreak Data Analysis

“…This study describes the largest sample of confirmed MERS-CoV cases and confirms previous study findings indicating males are predominately affected by this disease [6,7] and is in comparison to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), where there is a predominance of females in all cases [8]. Healthcare workers were at high risk and accounted for one-sixth of all cases, in comparison to SARS in which healthcare workers accounted for one-fifth of all cases.…”

Mass Spectrometry, Proteomics, Data Mining Strategies and Their Applications in Infectious Disease Research.

“…During this epidemic 916 patients died of the disease and 8,422 were infected [153]. A new coronavirus (SARS-CoV) was found to be the etiological agent within 4 months of disease emergence [123,154,155] and its genome was completely sequenced within two weeks.…”