Faced with an epidemic of an infectious disease, persons may take precautionary actions to try to reduce their risk. Such actions include avoiding situations that persons perceive to be risky, which can have negative health and economic effects.…
We compared the clinical features of 8 U.S. case-patients with laboratory-confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) to 65 controls who tested negative for SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) infection. Shortness of breath, vomiting, diarrhea,…
An unprecedented community outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) occurred in the Amoy Gardens, a high-rise residential complex in Hong Kong. Droplet, air, contaminated fomites, and rodent pests have been proposed to be mechanisms for…
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can arise in patients with medical illness. We used 2 Chinese self-report measures to examine features of PTSD, anxiety, and depression in 131 survivors of severe acute respiratory syndrome at 1 month and 3 months…
To examine the media response to severe acute respiratory syndrome, we reviewed New Zealand’s major newspaper (261 articles for 3 months). While important accurate health messages were frequently included, some were missed (e.g., handwashing in only…
During the recent global outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), thousands of patients received treatments of uncertain efficacy and known toxicity such as ribavirin and corticosteroids. Despite this, no controlled clinical trials…
Bats host noteworthy viral pathogens, including coronaviruses, astroviruses, and adenoviruses. Knowledge on the ecology of reservoir-borne viruses is critical for preventive approaches against zoonotic epidemics. We studied a maternity colony of…