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Certainties and Uncertainties Facing Emerging Respiratory Infectious Diseases: Lessons from SARS

Every emerging infectious disease is a challenge to the whole of mankind. There are uncertainties regarding whether there will be a pandemic, if it will be caused by the highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza virus, when or where it will occur, how imminent or how severe it will be. No one can accurately...

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Autores principales: Chen, Yee-Chun, Chang, Shan-Chwen, Tsai, Keh-Sung, Lin, Fang-Yue
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Formosan Medical Association & Elsevier. Published by Elsevier (Singapore) Pte Ltd 2008
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7135137/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18583213
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0929-6646(08)60150-3
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author Chen, Yee-Chun
Chang, Shan-Chwen
Tsai, Keh-Sung
Lin, Fang-Yue
author_facet Chen, Yee-Chun
Chang, Shan-Chwen
Tsai, Keh-Sung
Lin, Fang-Yue
author_sort Chen, Yee-Chun
collection PubMed
description Every emerging infectious disease is a challenge to the whole of mankind. There are uncertainties regarding whether there will be a pandemic, if it will be caused by the highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza virus, when or where it will occur, how imminent or how severe it will be. No one can accurately predict if and when a given virus will become a pandemic virus. Pandemic prevention strategies must be based on preparing for the unexpected and being capable of reacting accordingly. There is growing evidence that infection control measures were helpful in containment of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) as well as avian influenza. Compliance of standard infection control measures, intensive promotion of hand and respiratory hygiene, vigilance and triage of patients with febrile illness, and specific infection control measures are key components to contain a highly contagious disease in hospital and to protect healthcare workers, patients and visitors. The importance of standard precautions for any patient and cleaning and disinfection for the healthcare environment cannot be overemphasized. SARS illustrated dramatically the potential of air travel and globalization for the dissemination of an emerging infectious disease. To prevent the potential serious consequences of pandemic influenza, timely implementation of pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical interventions locally within the outbreak area is the key to minimizing global spread. Herein, we relate our perspective on useful lessons derived from a review of the SARS epidemic that may be useful to physicians, especially when looking ahead to the next epidemic.
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spelling pubmed-71351372020-04-08 Certainties and Uncertainties Facing Emerging Respiratory Infectious Diseases: Lessons from SARS Chen, Yee-Chun Chang, Shan-Chwen Tsai, Keh-Sung Lin, Fang-Yue J Formos Med Assoc Article Every emerging infectious disease is a challenge to the whole of mankind. There are uncertainties regarding whether there will be a pandemic, if it will be caused by the highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza virus, when or where it will occur, how imminent or how severe it will be. No one can accurately predict if and when a given virus will become a pandemic virus. Pandemic prevention strategies must be based on preparing for the unexpected and being capable of reacting accordingly. There is growing evidence that infection control measures were helpful in containment of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) as well as avian influenza. Compliance of standard infection control measures, intensive promotion of hand and respiratory hygiene, vigilance and triage of patients with febrile illness, and specific infection control measures are key components to contain a highly contagious disease in hospital and to protect healthcare workers, patients and visitors. The importance of standard precautions for any patient and cleaning and disinfection for the healthcare environment cannot be overemphasized. SARS illustrated dramatically the potential of air travel and globalization for the dissemination of an emerging infectious disease. To prevent the potential serious consequences of pandemic influenza, timely implementation of pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical interventions locally within the outbreak area is the key to minimizing global spread. Herein, we relate our perspective on useful lessons derived from a review of the SARS epidemic that may be useful to physicians, especially when looking ahead to the next epidemic. Formosan Medical Association & Elsevier. Published by Elsevier (Singapore) Pte Ltd 2008-06 2008-10-19 /pmc/articles/PMC7135137/ /pubmed/18583213 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0929-6646(08)60150-3 Text en Copyright © 2008 Formosan Medical Association & Elsevier. Published by Elsevier (Singapore) Pte Ltd. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.
spellingShingle Article
Chen, Yee-Chun
Chang, Shan-Chwen
Tsai, Keh-Sung
Lin, Fang-Yue
Certainties and Uncertainties Facing Emerging Respiratory Infectious Diseases: Lessons from SARS
title Certainties and Uncertainties Facing Emerging Respiratory Infectious Diseases: Lessons from SARS
title_full Certainties and Uncertainties Facing Emerging Respiratory Infectious Diseases: Lessons from SARS
title_fullStr Certainties and Uncertainties Facing Emerging Respiratory Infectious Diseases: Lessons from SARS
title_full_unstemmed Certainties and Uncertainties Facing Emerging Respiratory Infectious Diseases: Lessons from SARS
title_short Certainties and Uncertainties Facing Emerging Respiratory Infectious Diseases: Lessons from SARS
title_sort certainties and uncertainties facing emerging respiratory infectious diseases: lessons from sars
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7135137/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18583213
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0929-6646(08)60150-3
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