Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
1. General information
SARS is a newly recognized and sometimes fatal respiratory infection. Current
information suggests that SARS is caused by a virus in the Coronavirus
family and that the disease originated in late 2002 and early 2003 in Southern
China. Cases have now been reported from many countries around the world.
2. Basic SARS references
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (www.cdc.gov) maintains a web
page devoted exclusively to SARS (www.cdc.gov/ncidod/sars) which
includes excellent technical documents about the disease. Links are provided
below to ten of these documents, selected from the several dozen available, as
useful for persons, including health care professionals, looking for a rapid
basic orientation to SARS.
3. More extensive information about SARS
- US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (includes useful guidelines covering virtually every commonly encountered situation)
- Reported Cases by State
- National Institutes of Health
- World Health Organization
- Health Canada
- New York Times
4. Flow chart for management of contacts to
cases of SARS
Several of the CDC guidelines include a 1-page flow chart which
contains a step-by-step guide to management of persons who have been exposed
to persons with SARS. The chart includes useful short definitions of "exposure" and "isolation precautions",
though the full CDC documents should be consulted as needed for more detailed
information.
5. SARS Reporting
Physicians and health care facilities should report SARS suspects to their local
county health department.