In the Beginning of SARS

 

The 2003 outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) had all the scary elements of a plague—panic, curtailed travel and commerce, and economic collapse. It began in February 2003 when a 64-year-old Chinese physician who was working in a hospital in Guandong Province in southern China traveled to Hong Kong to attend a wedding and became ill. He had a fever, a dry cough, a sore throat, and a headache. Unconcerned, he felt well enough to sightsee and shop with his brother-in-law in Hong Kong; however, during that day his condition worsened, and he had difficulty in breathing. Seeking medical attention at a nearby hospital, he was taken immediately to the intensive care unit and given antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs, and oxygen. This was to no avail, and several hours later he suffered respiratory failure and died. The brother-in-law, who was in contact with him for only 10 hours, suffered from the same symptoms 3 days later and was hospitalized. Again, all measures failed, and he died 3 weeks after being hospitalized.

 

Laboratory tests for the physician (patient 1) and his brother-in-law (patient 2) were negative for Legionnaires' disease, tuberculosis, and influenza. A third SARS case occurred in a female nurse who had seen the physician in the intensive care unit, and the fourth case was a 72-year-old Chinese-Canadian businessman who had returned to Hong Kong for a family reunion. He stayed overnight in the same hotel and on the same floor as the physician. (He would ultimately carry SARS to Canada when he returned home.) Patient 5 was the nurse who attended the brother-in-law, and patients 6, 7, 8, and 9 were either visitors to the hospital or nurses who had attended patient 4. Patient 10 shared the same hospital room with patient 4 for 5 days. In less than a month, 10 patients had SARS, six of whom (3,4,6,8,9, and 10) survived and four of whom (1, 2, 5 and 7) died. Over the next 4 months, the SARS survivors sowed the seeds of infection that led to more than 8,000 cases and 800 deaths in 27 countries, representing every continent.

 

From: Sherman, I.W. The Power of Plagues, ASM Press, Washington D.C., 2006, p.3.