SARS Outbreak
Naiwei Hsu
SZT1/ Community and Population Health
Western Governors University
SARS Outbreak
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is a severe viral pneumonia caused by a coronavirus, known as SARS-associated coronavirus. SARS was initially appeared in Asia at the end of February 2003. For the next 100 days, SARS dispersed to over 29 countries in North and South America, Asia and Europe. There were 8,098 people from 29 countries who became ill with SARS throughout the upsurge. Of those, 774 people died. In the United States, only 8 people had laboratory confirmed SARS-CoV illness (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). The illness spread like wild fire, its ability to wipe out the hospital staff, and the unknown presents a challenge. A total of 1,725 health care workers were infected, that’s 20% of all reported cases (Protecting against SARS during equipment maintenance, 2003). United States and other industrialized countries have established infection control programs, while the rest of the world has serious discrepancies. Some of the discrepancies are related to the lack of basic infrastructure to control infection. There is no sink to wash hands, nor facilities to isolate infected patients. Others are related to the individual health care worker’s attitude and behavior rather than the settings he or she works (Murthy, 2006).
There are several epidemiological indicators which are significant. First, the most affected regions have a median incubation time of 4 to 5 days, and a mean of 4 to 6 days. The minimum was 1 day and the maximum was 14 days. The far right end of the distribution also known as maximum incubation period has huge effect on public health. The shortest incubation periods affect the mean incubation period. (Consensus document on the epidemiology of severe acute respiratory syndrome, SARS, 2003). It is unclear if the route of transmission affects the incubation period. The second indicator is...