Sustainable Development

Severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS is a respiratory disease in humans which is caused by the SARS coronavirus. There has been one major epidemic to date, between November 2002 and July 2003, with 8,096 known cases of the disease, and 774 deaths (a mortality rate of 9.6%) being listed in the WHO's April 21, 2004 concluding report.[1]

The epidemic of SARS appears to have originated in Guangdong Province, China in November 2002. The first case was reportedly originated from a rural area in Foshan, Guangdong in Nov 2002, and the patient, a farmer, was treated in the First People's Hospital of Foshan. The patient died soon after, and no definite diagnosis was made on his cause of death. ("Patient #0" -- first reported symptoms -- has been attributed to Charles Bybelezar of Montreal, Canada) and, despite taking some action to control it, Chinese government officials did not inform the World Health Organization of the outbreak until February 2003, restricting media coverage in order to preserve public confidence. This lack of openness caused delays in efforts to control the epidemic, resulting in criticism of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from the international community. The PRC has since officially apologized for early slowness in dealing with the SARS epidemic.[3]

Symptoms
Initial symptoms are flu-like and may include: fever, myalgia, lethargy, gastrointestinal symptoms, cough, sore throat and other non-specific symptoms. The only symptom that is common to all patients appears to be a fever above 38 °C (100.4 °F). Shortness of breath may occur later. Symptoms usually appear 2–10 days following exposure, but up to 13 days has been reported. In most cases symptoms appear within 2–3 days. About 10–20% of cases require mechanical ventilation.

Treatment
Antibiotics are ineffective. Treatment of SARS so far has been largely supportive with antipyretics, supplemental oxygen and ventilatory support as needed.

Suspected cases of SARS must be isolated, preferably in negative pressure rooms, with full barrier nursing precautions taken for any necessary contact with these patients.

There was initially anecdotal support for steroids and the antiviral drug ribavirin, but no published evidence has supported this therapy. Many clinicians now suspect that ribavirin is detrimental.

Researchers are currently testing all known antiviral treatments for other diseases including AIDS, hepatitis, influenza and others on the SARS-causing coronavirus.

There is some evidence that some of the more serious damage in SARS is due to the body's own immune system overreacting to the virus. There may be some benefit from using steroids and other immune modulating agents in the treatment of the more acute SARS patients. Research is continuing in this area.

In December 2004 it was reported that Chinese researchers had produced a SARS vaccine. It has been tested on a group of 36 volunteers, 24 of whom developed antibodies against the virus. [citation needed]

A 2006 systematic review of all the studies done on the 2003 SARS epidemic found no evidence that antivirals, steroids or other therapies helped patients. A few suggested they caused harm.[7]



參考資料:
http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Severe_acut e_respiratory_syndro me#Symptoms