The SARS Outbreak in 2002/2003
In 2002/2003 a new Coronavirus, SARS-CoV emerged in the Guandong Province in China, causing a worldwide epidemic, with more than 8000 cases and mortality rate of 10%.
(Click image to enlarge)
SARS-CoV disease is characterized by an atypical pneumonia, from which typically 70 to 80% of patients were able to recover. However, approximately 20 to 30 % of cases progressed to a particularly devastating end-stage disease, the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), requiring intensive care and mechanical ventilation. SARS-CoV disease severity was directly associated with increasing age, as mortality rate in patients over the age of 65 exceeded more than 50%.
The SARS outbreak was not only characterized by the efficiency of cross-species transmission but also by the occurrence of "superspreaders". A textbook example of such a superspreader event and the following epidemiological outbreak investigation is the event associated with the Metropole Hotel in Hong Kong in February 2003. The index case was a Chinese physician from the Guangdong Province in China, staying for one night on the 9th floor of the Hotel before becoming ill. Within 24 hours, 13 other hotel guests who stayed on the same floor became infected with the virus, which would then take the virus to Canada, Ireland, the US, Singapore, Vietnam, Germany and Hong Kong itself, infecting directly or indirectly more than 350 people.
References:
- CDC
- Braden CR, Dowell SF, Jernigan DB, Hughes JM. (2013). Progress in global surveillance and response capacity 10 years after severe acute respiratory syndrome. Emerg Infect Dis. 19:864-69.
by Alexandra Schaefer, Ph.D.; July 2013