SARS
Be Cautious About the New Disease!
Q. What is SARS?
A. SARS stands for severe acute respiratory syndrome. It's a new disease that doctors still don't know much about.
Q. What are the symptoms of SARS?
A. They are a lot like pneumonia or the flu. People get a very high fever - at least 104 degrees. They also usually have shortness of breath or other problems breathing and a dry cough. Some people get other symptoms, including a headache, stiff or achy muscles, a loss of appetite, fatigue, a rash and diarrhea.
Q. How do you get SARS?
A. It seems that you have to have very close contact with someone who has it. Almost all the people who have gotten SARS have either been hospital workers who cared for sick people or members of a victim's family. Doctors believe that it is spread by tiny droplets that get airborne when someone sneezes or coughs, or by contact with other bodily fluids such as blood. The people who have gotten SARS outside of Asia have all either recently traveled to Asian countries where it is spreading or had
close contact with someone who recently returned from there. Experts don't think it's easy to catch SARS from sitting next to a sick person on a plane, but they are investigating one incident in which Chinese tourists may have gotten infected by flying on a plane with an infected man.
Q. Where is it spreading the most?
A. The disease has hit hardest in China, especially in Hong Kong and the southern province of Guangdong. But there has also been a number of cases in Hanoi and in Singapore. The outbreak nearest to the United States has been in Toronto.
Q. Are people in this area at risk?
A. No one can yet predict how the epidemic will unfold in the future, but at this point there seems to be little risk unless you are in contact with people who have traveled to affected areas or have been there yourself. Four possible cases have, however, been reported in Virginia.
Q. How can I protect myself?
A. The best way is to avoid traveling to places where the disease is most common and avoid close contact with someone who appears to have the disease. Hospital workers who have started wearing masks and gloves have not gotten sick.
Q. Can SARS be treated?
A. Antibiotics don't seem to work, which is usually the case with virus-caused diseases. One antiviral drug known as ribavirin may help, but doctors aren't sure yet.
Q. How dangerous is the disease?
A. Between 80 percent and 90 percent of patients get better on their own in about a week. The other 10 percent to 20 percent get worse, with many ending up in intensive care and requiring mechanical ventilators to help them breathe. About half of those people die.
Q. Who is most at risk?
A. People over age 40 and those who have other medical problems, such as heart or liver disease, seem to do the worst.
Q. What causes SARS?
A. Scientists are not sure, but they have found two previously unknown viruses in patients. One is from the coronavirus family of viruses, the other from a different family called paramyxoviruses. Paramyxoviruses cause many different diseases, including mumps, measles and respiratory illnesses. Coronaviruses usually just cause the common cold.
Q. Where did SARS come from?
A. The disease is believed to have first emerged in Guangdong province in China in November and then spread to Hong Kong and elsewhere.
Q. Could this be bioterrorism?
A. Health officials aren't ruling anything out, but they think this is something that occurred naturally, perhaps when a virus that usually only makes animals sick changed somehow and became able to make people sick.
Please carefully read this message about SARS.This memorandum is from
the
physician who has been managing the SARS situation in Hong Kong's Prince
of
Wales Hospital for the past few weeks.The issues and preventions are
really
quite simple. But we all need to think about what we are doing, all the
time.
Hundreds of staff works with me. They are all facing the same risk of
infection. It is really sad that, over last 2-week's ordeal, 8% of our
staff have been infected despite the following precautions.
That is probably due to forgetfulness: rubbing eyes or nose after
touching the mask, etc. So you can imagine how contagious this virus
is.
Preventative measures are mostly just remembering to think before
acting,
taking time to clean up, staying clean, and doing things properly.
Preventive measures:
1. Wash your hands frequently. Don't touch your eyes, nose or mouth
before washing hands. After you wash, don't touch faucet handles or
paper
towel levers with hands; use paper towels to touch things, and then toss
them. Or use your elbows.
2. Minimize touching things: e.g., push the button in the lift
using
your key or elbows, to avoid any direct contact with your bare hand.
3. If you can tolerate latex gloves, wear them. But remember not to
touch your eyes or mouth with the glove. Outsides of gloves become
contaminated. When you remove gloves, wash up immediately.
4. Wear a well-fitted mask in all public places: lifts, escalators,
bus, MTR, trains, airplanes, offices, restaurants and shopping malls.
Don't go to cinemas.
5. If you wear a mask, don't touch its outside. Masks work well:
they trap a lot of droplets, so they quickly become contaminated on the
outside. Throw them out safely. Then wash up immediately.
6. Always use handkerchiefs and tissues when you cough or sneeze.
Keep them handy. Frown at people who thoughtlessly sneeze or cough
without
protecting others. Warn them verbally.
7. The air and all surfaces within a distance of 5 feet from an
infected person are highly infectious because of droplets, especially
when
that person sneezes and coughs.
8. Clean your door handles, light switches, doorjambs, furniture
and
floor with diluted(1 in 100) bleaching detergent. Dettol is NOT
useful.
9. Do not lie down on the floor, or allow children to crawl or play
on the floor. Floors are nearly impossible to keep clean from
contaminants.
10. Wash your clothes immediately after going home from public
exposures. You have been using clothing to protect you all day
long. Now it is contaminated. Remember your elbows?
Take care of yourselves and those around you.
Dr. Justin Wu
