Severe acute respiratory syndrome
Also called: SARS
Description
A contagious and sometimes fatal respiratory illness caused by a coronavirus.
SARS appeared in 2002 in China. It spread worldwide within a few months, although it was quickly contained.
SARS is a virus transmitted through droplets that enter the air when someone with the disease coughs, sneezes or talks. No known transmission has occurred since 2004.
Fever, dry cough, headache, muscle aches and difficulty breathing are symptoms.
No treatment exists except supportive care.
SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)
Cause
SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) – virus identified in 2003. SARS-CoV is thought to be an animal virus from an as-yet-uncertain animal reservoir, perhaps bats, that spread to other animals (civet cats) and first infected humans in the Guangdong province of southern China in 2002.
Transmission
An epidemic of SARS affected 26 countries and resulted in more than 8000 cases in 2003. Since then, a small number of cases have occurred as a result of laboratory accidents or, possibly, through animal-to-human transmission (Guangdong, China).
Transmission of SARS-CoV is primarily from person to person. It appears to have occurred mainly during the second week of illness, which corresponds to the peak of virus excretion in respiratory secretions and stool, and when cases with severe disease start to deteriorate clinically. Most cases of human-to-human transmission occurred in the health care setting, in the absence of adequate infection control precautions. Implementation of appropriate infection control practices brought the global outbreak to an end.
Nature of the disease
Symptoms are influenza-like and include fever, malaise, myalgia, headache, diarrhoea, and shivering (rigors). No individual symptom or cluster of symptoms has proved to be specific for a diagnosis of SARS. Although fever is the most frequently reported symptom, it is sometimes absent on initial measurement, especially in elderly and immunosuppressed patients.
Cough (initially dry), shortness of breath, and diarrhoea are present in the first and/or second week of illness. Severe cases often evolve rapidly, progressing to respiratory distress and requiring intensive care.
Geographical distribution
The distribution is based on the 2002–2003 epidemic. The disease appeared in November 2002 in the Guangdong province of southern China. This area is considered as a potential zone of re-emergence of SARS-CoV.
Other countries/areas in which chains of human-to-human transmission occurred after early importation of cases were Toronto in Canada, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, Chinese Taipei, Singapore, and Hanoi in Viet Nam.
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SARS was only 8000 cases?!?!?!?!?!? I remember so much talk about this!
Puts into persepective when compared with COVID-19 doesn't it though! Across the world, there have been more than 124,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) and more than 4,500 reported deaths.
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