Severe acute respiratory syndrome:control measures in india

摘要

Seldom in recent history has a disease caused such a world-wide scare, with its fall out extending to such diverse fields as trade and tourism, civil aviation and international sport as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The first severe infectious disease to emerge in the 21~(st)century, it started the Guangdong province of China in November 2002 and quickly spread to other provinces. It was carried to Hong Kong in February 2003 by an infected physician, who had treated patients in his home town in China. Outbreaks also occurred in Vietnam, Singapore and as far away as Toronto, as a result of secondary transmission outside the health care setting.The disease came to notice when a patient in Hanoi, Vietnam with a respiratory illness, died on 13~(th) March, 2003 in Hong Kong. Many health care workers who cared for this patient also became ill. Alarmed by the several similar cases of atypical pneumonia in a Hanoi hospital, Dr. Carlo Urbani, a medical epidemiologist, notified the WHO about the mysterious illness. Later, Dr. Urbani died due to same disease in Thailand on 29~(th) March 2003. It was only a question of time before sporadic cases occurred in various countries round the globe. Till 13th June 2003, a cumulative total of 8454 probable cases and 792 deaths due to SARS were reported from 29 countries including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Canada, Singapore, Philippines, USA and UK. The number of cases started declining in the middle of June, 2003 and by the first week of July, WHO was in a position to report that the disease had been controlled world-wide. It is probably time now to review the epidemic in retrospect, specially from the Indian standpoint and plan for the future.