SARS: The challenge of emerging pathogens to the intensivist

Excerpt

In late February 2003, the WHO issued a worldwide public health alert on the emergence of a new epidemic of acute respiratory disease first identified in Asian countries since November 2002. In a few weeks, the new agent causing this "severe acute respiratory syndrome" (SARS), a coronavirus, has been identified, sequenced, and tests have been developed for diagnosis [1]. As of the end of April 2003, about 5,000 suspected or probable cases have been reported to the WHO from 27 countries [2], with a vast majority from inland China (57% of reported cases), which appears to be at the origin of the epidemic, and Hong Kong (32%). In other countries from the Asian continent, which appear to have been secondarily affected, reported cases have been few so far, e.g., Singapore (4% of reported cases), Vietnam (1%) and Taiwan (<1%). Altogether, 95% of the cases have been reported from Asian countries. Interestingly, the epidemic seems to have rapidly abated in Vietnam, from where no new cases have been reported since mid-April. …