Environmental and Occupational Health Response to SARS, Taiwan, 2003

Environmental and Occupational Health Response to SARS, Taiwan, 2003

Eric J. Esswein, Max Kiefer, Ken Wallingford, Greg Burr, Lukas Jyhun-Hsiarn Lee, Jung-Der Wang, Shun Chih Wang, Ih-Jen Su

The Taiwan Department of Health requested assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in controlling an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The CDC SARS response team included industrial hygiene specialists from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Four NIOSH specialists visited hospitals and medical centers throughout Taiwan and assisted with designing and evaluating ventilation modifications for infection control, developed guidelines for converting hospital rooms into SARS patient isolation rooms, prepared designs for the rapid conversion of a vacated military facility into a SARS screening and observation facility, assessed environmental aspects of dedicated SARS hospitals, and worked in concert with the Taiwanese to develop hospital ventilation guidelines. We describe the environmental findings and observations from this response, including the rapid reconfiguration of medical facilities during a national health emergency, and discuss environmental challenges should SARS or a SARS-like virus emerge again.

2004

severe acute respiratory syndrome, SARS, Taiwan, Hospitals, industrial hygiene, Health Care Facilities

DOI: 10.3201/eid1007.030728

Emerging Infectious Diseases

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Infectious and parasitic diseases, Medicine

EN