The first pandemic that occurred in the 21st century was from SARS and was first detected in the Guangdong province, China on November 16th, 2002. It was caused by a zoonotic spillover from wild animals in a “wet” market.
It was a localized outbreak before a physician treating patients with atypical pneumonia, had contracted the virus and unknowingly spread the infection after attending a wedding in Hong Kong. The index case had contact with other hotel guests, who then continued to travel to other countries, which snowballed the infection and resulted in a total of 8,906 patient infections, 774 deaths, and $60 billion in business revenue loss over a period of eight months.
In this case study, Eric Rochman presents the epidemiological aspects of this pandemic; describing the five countries (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Canada, and Singapore) that had the highest fatality rates, and that healthcare workers were the worst population affected and constituted a significant percentage of the patients. Although critical care was not required by most, 1 in 5 patients required admission into the intensive care unit, mostly for the need for mechanical ventilation.
Rochman analyzed the effect of the local preventative measures, and deemed that they were effective, such as early case detection, isolation, contact tracing, quarantine, surveillance, and the education and use of personal protective equipment and infection control practices.
In terms of management and communication, Rochman discusses the World Health Organization’s response after they declared a Global Alert, pointing out that the Global Outbreak and Alert Response Network (GOARN) continued to receive support and was developed to be effective in helping laboratories collaborate and share information and samples.
Due to globalization, greater coordination and continued surveillance are necessary for future global pandemics prevention, such as the continued use of the GOARN which provides accountability for countries to report and communicate with WHO.
Read Eric Rochman’s case study here