Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Hon, K L
• Leung, Karen KY

Titel

Severe acute respiratory symptoms and suspected SARS again 2020

Ist Teil von

• Hong Kong medical journal = Xianggang yi xue za zhi, 2020-02, Vol.26 (1), p.78

Ort / Verlag

Hong Kong: Hong Kong Academy of Medicine

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Free E-Journal (出版社公開部分のみ）

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• To the Editor[-]In a statement to the media on 3 January 2020, the Hong Kong Centre for Health Protection (CHP), citing provincial health commission sources, reported that they were closely monitoring a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, Hubei Province, in mainland China.1 The so-called 'Wuhan pneumonia' appeared to be viral in nature and patients were placed in isolation. News of the outbreak initially triggered rumours of a potential outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).2 3 From a public health perspective, the imprecise definition of SARS could have grave consequences as patients may be erroneously quarantined, and communities and cities could be unduly stigmatised.2 4 Owing to similarities and differences between SARS, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), and avian influenza, it is difficult to diagnose or refute SARS in epidemics of respiratory syndromes.2 5 6 These epidemics are often severe, always acute, and invariably involve pneumonia with respiratory tract symptoms.4 7 Travel or contact history is pivotal in formulating management protocol during any outbreak when the pathogen is not initially clear, as illustrated by Hong Kong health personnel to obtain the relevant travel history of the recent patients from Wuhan.3 As an alternative to current convention, we previously proposed the term epidemic pneumonia (EP) and the surveillance classification summarised below, which would remove any confusion associated with respiratory terminology such as SARS or MERS2, for example: EP [C+, P+] EP with positive contact or travel history and pathogen identified EP [C+, P-] EP with positive contact or travel history but no pathogen identified EP [C-, P-] EP with negative contact or travel history and no pathogen identified EP [C?, P?] EP with contact or travel history and virology/bacteriology pending or not yet identified The classification may be useful for index surveillance purposes as well as in epidemiological and prognostication studies. Hui DS, Memish ZA, Zumla A. Severe acute respiratory syndrome vs. the Middle East respiratory syndrome.