Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
Your Health Information
First reported in Asia in February 2003, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is an infectious respiratory illness that by early March 2003, the World Health Organization had issued a global alert regarding.
The disease spread to more than two dozen countries in North America, South America, Europe and Asia Over the few months following. However, by late July, no new cases had been reported and SARS was considered controlled.
According to WHO, 8,437 people worldwide became sick with SARS during the course of this outbreak, resulting in 813 deaths.
What are the symptoms of SARS?
- Typically, SARS begins with a fever greater than 100.4°F [>38.0°C].
- Other symptoms may include overall discomfort, headache, and body aches.
- Additionally, some people experience mild respiratory symptoms. SARS patients may develop a dry cough and have trouble breathing after 2 to 7 days.
How is SARS spread?
Close person-to-person contact appears to be the primary way SARS is spread. In fact, most cases have involved people who lived with or cared for someone with the disease, or people who had direct contact with infectious material, such as respiratory secretion from a SARS-infected individual.
Other potential ways in which SARS can be spread include touching objects that are contaminated with infectious droplets and then touching your eye(s), nose, or mouth. This can happen when someone who is sick with SARS sneezes or coughs droplets onto other people, themselves, or nearby surfaces.
There exists a possibility that SARS may be spread more broadly through the air or by other ways that are still unknown.
Who has contracted SARS?
The majority of the U.S. cases of SARS arose among travelers who were returning from other parts of the world where SARS was prevalent. Fortunately, very few cases occurred resulting from close contacts, such as family members and health-care workers. In the United States, SARS did not become widely spread in the community.
What is the cause of SARS?
While it is possible that other infectious agents might have a role in some cases of the disease, SARS is caused by a previously unrecognized coronavirus, called SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV).
More information on SARS is available on the U.S. Center for Disease Control's website. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/sars/
