Severe acute respiratory syndrome

Abstract

The first cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) occurred in China in November 2002. The agent causing this illness has been identified as a novel coronavirus, SARS-coronavirus. Since its introduction <1 year ago, this virus has infected 8098 people in 26 countries, killing 774 of them. We present an overview of the epidemiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, and treatment of SARS based on the current state of knowledge derived from published studies and our own personal experience.

Figure 1

Probable cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome reported worldwide between 1 November 2002 to 31 July 2003 [1]. ^aIncludes France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom. ^bIncludes Macao. •, Date of onset of first probable case; □, Date of onset of last probable case.

Figure 2

Transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome by a single individual from Guangdong province, China, to Hotel M in Kowloon, Hong Kong, and subsequently to countries around the world via air travel by infected hotel guests [9].

Table 1

Summary of clinical findings of severe acute respiratory syndrome at admission to the hospital.

Table 2

Duration of clinical phases of the mild and moderately severe variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Table 3

Suggested tests for patients presenting with a high pretest probability of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).