Managing Febrile Respiratory Illnesses during Hypothetical SARS Outbreaks

Managing Febrile Respiratory Illnesses during Hypothetical SARS Outbreaks

Kamran Khan, Michael Gardam, Peter Muennig, Joshua Graff Zivin

Since the World Health Organization declared the global outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) contained in July 2003, new cases have periodically reemerged in Asia. This situation has placed hospitals and health officials worldwide on heightened alert. In a future outbreak, rapidly and accurately distinguishing SARS from other common febrile respiratory illnesses (FRIs) could be difficult. We constructed a decision-analysis model to identify the most efficient strategies for managing undifferentiated FRIs within a hypothetical SARS outbreak in New York City during the season of respiratory infections. If establishing reliable epidemiologic links were not possible, societal costs would exceed $2.0 billion per month. SARS testing with existing polymerase chain reaction assays would have harmful public health and economic consequences if SARS made up

2005

cost-benefit analysis, human, mass screening, severe acute respiratory syndrome, influenza-like illness, influenza vaccination

DOI: 10.3201/eid1102.040524

Emerging Infectious Diseases

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Infectious and parasitic diseases, Medicine