Question

Severe acute respiratory syndrome discuss the potential impact of the disease, pathogenesis, mechanism of transmission, and associated risks.

Answer 1

Severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS is a contagious and sometimes a fatal respiratory illness. It is caused by SARS coronavirus this virus takes over your body’s cells and uses them to make copies of itself. The symptoms normally appear within 3 to 5 days after the exposure to the virus but they can develop 2 to 7 days. The disease are not contagious during the incubation period. Mostly the first symptom is high grade fever. Over a course of a week flu-like symptoms like body aches, chills, diarrhea, dry cough and shortness of breath will start to appear. Patients are at risk of developing pneumonia or in severe cases respiratory failure, heart failure and liver failure.

The mode of transmission of SARS coronavirus is when a person touches a surface or object contaminated with infectious droplets and then touches his or her mouth, nose, or eyes. It could also be transmitted through hugging, kissing, sharing utensils even talking to the infected person with in a 3 feet distance.

No drug including antibiotics seems to be effective against SARS. Only supportive care are given to patients infected by the virus. The WHO recommends isolating patients and using barrier techniques to prevent the spread of the virus.

The SARS outbreak provides a reminder of the importance of the rearrangemtn of health care systems with an international focus of ensuring adequate surveillance mechanisms, rapid response to epidemics, effective prevention and control strategies, and maintenance of optimal infrastructure nationally and internationally.