United Nations workers grapple with SARS.

• Author: Reinhardt, Erika
• Position: Global Health Threat

The world's first recognized case of a deadly new disease, later named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), occurred in the Guangdong Province of China on 16 November 2002. The disease is characterized by high fever and respiratory symptoms, including a dry cough, shortness of breath and difficulty in breathing, and is transmitted by face-to-face exposure to droplets released when an infected person coughs or sneezes. There is no evidence that the disease spreads through casual contact. A new pathogen, a member of the coronavirus family never before seen in humans, has now been identified as the cause of SARS.

As of 13 May, the worldwide cumulative number of reported probable cases of SARS since November 2002 has risen to 7,548, with 573 deaths, from 30 countries; of those infected, 3,298 have recovered.

On 12 March, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued its first global alert describing the disease in Viet Nam, while the Department of Health of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China reported an outbreak of severe respiratory disease in one of its public hospitals. WHO recommended that infected patients be isolated with barrier-nursing techniques and that any suspect case be reported to national authorities. On 26 March, 80 clinicians from 13 countries participated in a virtual conference on the treatment of SARS patients. WHO plans to hold an international meeting in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia from 17 to 18 June, to review the epidemiological, clinical management and laboratory findings on SARS and to discuss global control strategies. A report of the meeting will be posted on its web site (www.who.int/csr/sars/en/).

The WHO Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) was rapidly mobilized in response to the SARS outbreak involving international field support, epidemiological and clinical networking, and laboratory collaboration.

GOARN provides an operational platform for international teams on the ground in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Viet Nam. These teams involve 60 experts representing 20 organizations and 15 nationalities working with national authorities on case management, infection control and surveillance, as well as laboratory and epidemiological investigation. Epidemiologists investigating disease transmission and clinicians treating SARS cases have come together in a global collaboration, together with 17 laboratories from nine countries which test samples from SARS...