SARS epidemic

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) is causative of the syndrome.
Classification and external resources
Specialty	Infectious disease
ICD-10	U04
ICD-9-CM	079.82
DiseasesDB	32835
MedlinePlus	007192
eMedicine	med/3662
Patient UK	Severe acute respiratory syndrome
MeSH	D045169
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Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory disease of zoonotic origin caused by the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV). Between November 2002 and July 2003, an outbreak of SARS in southern China caused an eventual 8,098 cases, resulting in 774 deaths reported in 37 countries, with the majority of cases in Hong Kong (9.6% fatality rate) according to the World Health Organization (WHO). No cases of SARS have been reported worldwide since 2004.

Initial symptoms are flu-like and may include fever, myalgia, lethargy symptoms, cough, sore throat, and other nonspecific symptoms. The only symptom common to all patients appears to be a fever above 38 °C (100 °F). SARS may eventually lead to shortness of breath and/or pneumonia; either direct viral pneumonia or first bacterial pneumonia.

SARS may be suspected in a patient who has:

For a case to be considered probable, a chest X-ray must be positive for atypical pneumonia or respiratory distress syndrome.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has added the category of "laboratory confirmed SARS" for patients who would otherwise be considered "probable" but who have not yet had a positive chest X-ray changes, but have tested positive for SARS based on one of the approved tests (ELISA, immunofluorescence or PCR).

When it comes to the chest X-ray the appearance of SARS is not always uniform but generally appears as an abnormality with patchy infiltrates.

There is no vaccine for SARS to date and isolation and quarantine remain the most effective means to prevent the spread of SARS. Other preventative measures include:

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