How common is Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome?

How do you prevent severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)?

• Answer:

  Until a vaccine is developed, isolation and quarantine remain potent tools in the modern public health arsenal. Both procedures seek to control exposure to infected individuals or materials. Isolation procedures are used with patients with a confirmed illness. Quarantine rules and procedures apply to individuals who are not currently ill, but are known to have been exposed to the illness (e.g., been in the company of a infected person or come in contact with infected materials). Isolation and quarantine both act to restrict movement and to slow or stop the spread of disease within a community. Depending on the illness, patients placed in isolation may be cared for in hospitals, specialized health care facilities, or in less severe cases, at home. Isolation is a standard procedure for TB patients. In most cases, isolation is voluntary; however, isolation can be compelled by federal, state, and some local law. States governments within the United States have a general authority to set and enforce quarantine conditions. At the federal level, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Division of Global Migration and Quarantine is empowered to detain, examine, or conditionally release (release with restrictions on movement or with a required treatment protocol) individuals suspected of carrying certain listed communicable diseases. As of April 27, 2003, the CDC in Atlanta recommended SARS patients be voluntarily isolated, but had not recommended enforced isolation or quarantine. Regardless, CDC and other public heath officials, including the Surgeon General, sought and secured increased powers to deal with SARS. On April 4, 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush signed Presidential Executive Order 13295 that added SARS to a list of quarantinable communicable diseases. The order provided health officials with the broader powers to seek "...apprehension, detention, or conditional release of individuals to prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of suspected communicable diseases..." Travel advisories issued by WHO should be reviewed and people who must travel to areas with SARS outbreaks should follow such preventative measures as frequent hand washing and avoidance of large crowds. Likewise, family members caring for suspected and/or confirmed SARS patients should wash hands frequently, avoid direct contact with the patient's bodily fluids, and monitor their own possible development of symptoms closely. Source: The Gale Group. Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine, 3rd ed.";