Coordinated Response to SARS, Vancouver, Canada

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

Two Canadian urban areas received travelers with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) before the World Health Organization issued its alert. By July 2003, Vancouver had identified 5 cases (4 imported); Toronto reported 247 cases (3 imported) and 43 deaths. Baseline preparedness for pandemic threats may account for the absence of sustained transmission and fewer cases of SARS in Vancouver.

Related collections

Most cited references 8

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Identification of severe acute respiratory syndrome in Canada.

Susan M Poutanen, Donald Low, Bonnie Henry … (2003)

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a condition of unknown cause that has recently been recognized in patients in Asia, North America, and Europe. This report summarizes the initial epidemiologic findings, clinical description, and diagnostic findings that followed the identification of SARS in Canada. SARS was first identified in Canada in early March 2003. We collected epidemiologic, clinical, and diagnostic data from each of the first 10 cases prospectively as they were identified. Specimens from all cases were sent to local, provincial, national, and international laboratories for studies to identify an etiologic agent. The patients ranged from 24 to 78 years old; 60 percent were men. Transmission occurred only after close contact. The most common presenting symptoms were fever (in 100 percent of cases) and malaise (in 70 percent), followed by nonproductive cough (in 100 percent) and dyspnea (in 80 percent) associated with infiltrates on chest radiography (in 100 percent). Lymphopenia (in 89 percent of those for whom data were available), elevated lactate dehydrogenase levels (in 80 percent), elevated aspartate aminotransferase levels (in 78 percent), and elevated creatinine kinase levels (in 56 percent) were common. Empirical therapy most commonly included antibiotics, oseltamivir, and intravenous ribavirin. Mechanical ventilation was required in five patients. Three patients died, and five have had clinical improvement. The results of laboratory investigations were negative or not clinically significant except for the amplification of human metapneumovirus from respiratory specimens from five of nine patients and the isolation and amplification of a novel coronavirus from five of nine patients. In four cases both pathogens were isolated. SARS is a condition associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. It appears to be of viral origin, with patterns suggesting droplet or contact transmission. The role of human metapneumovirus, a novel coronavirus, or both requires further investigation. Copyright 2003 Massachusetts Medical Society

0 comments Cited 507 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Network theory and SARS: predicting outbreak diversity

Lauren Ancel Meyers, Babak Pourbohloul, M.E.J. Newman … (2004)

Many infectious diseases spread through populations via the networks formed by physical contacts among individuals. The patterns of these contacts tend to be highly heterogeneous. Traditional “compartmental” modeling in epidemiology, however, assumes that population groups are fully mixed, that is, every individual has an equal chance of spreading the disease to every other. Applications of compartmental models to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) resulted in estimates of the fundamental quantity called the basic reproductive number R 0 —the number of new cases of SARS resulting from a single initial case—above one, implying that, without public health intervention, most outbreaks should spark large-scale epidemics. Here we compare these predictions to the early epidemiology of SARS. We apply the methods of contact network epidemiology to illustrate that for a single value of R 0 , any two outbreaks, even in the same setting, may have very different epidemiological outcomes. We offer quantitative insight into the heterogeneity of SARS outbreaks worldwide, and illustrate the utility of this approach for assessing public health strategies.

0 comments Cited 256 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: found

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS): a year in review.

Danuta M. Skowronski, Caroline Astell, Robert Brunham … (2004)

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) emerged from China as an untreatable and rapidly spreading respiratory illness of unknown etiology. Following point source exposure in February 2003, more than a dozen guests infected at a Hong Kong hotel seeded multi-country outbreaks that persisted through the spring of 2003. The World Health Organization responded by invoking traditional public health measures and advanced technologies to control the illness and contain the cause. A novel coronavirus was implicated and its entire genome was sequenced by mid-April 2003. The urgency of responding to this threat focused scientific endeavor and stimulated global collaboration. Through real-time application of accumulating knowledge, the world proved capable of arresting the first pandemic threat of the twenty-first century, despite early respiratory-borne spread and global susceptibility. This review synthesizes lessons learned from this remarkable achievement. These lessons can be applied to re-emergence of SARS or to the next pandemic threat to arise.

0 comments Cited 80 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

All references

Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Emerg Infect Dis

Journal ID (publisher-id): EID

Title: Emerging Infectious Diseases

Publisher: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

ISSN (Print): 1080-6040

ISSN (Electronic): 1080-6059

Publication date (Print): January 2006

Volume: 12

Issue: 1

Pages: 155-158

Affiliations

[* ]British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada;

[† ]Vancouver Coastal Health, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada;

[‡ ]Fraser Health, New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada;

[§ ]Royal Columbian Hospital, New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada;

[¶ ]St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada;

[# ]University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada;

[** ]National Microbiology Laboratory, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada;

[†† ]Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Author notes

Address for correspondence: Danuta M. Skowronski, BC Centre for Disease Control, 655 West 12th Ave, Vancouver, BC, Canada; fax: 604-660-0197; email: danuta.skowronski@ 123456bccdc.ca

Article

Publisher ID: 05-0327

DOI: 10.3201/eid1201.050327

PMC ID: 3291383

PubMed ID: 16494736

SO-VID: ada8a30d-ee72-442b-bc68-14fb9271c07f

History

Comments

Comment on this article

scite_

Cited by 14

See all cited by

Most referenced authors 202

See all reference authors

Coordinated Response to SARS, Vancouver, Canada

Read this article at

Abstract

Related collections

Coronaviruses, COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2

Most cited references 8

Identification of severe acute respiratory syndrome in Canada.

Network theory and SARS: predicting outbreak diversity

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS): a year in review.

Author and article information

Journal

Affiliations

Author notes

Article

History

Categories

Comments

Comment on this article

Similar content 705

Cited by 14

Most referenced authors 202