The Summer of SARS Essay -- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Health E

The Summer of SARS As far as I could recollect, every summer my family would travel back to Taiwan as my parents' way of paying homage to Taiwan and to immerse me and my sister in our culture and heritage. The summer of 2003 would have been just another summer spent on an over-heated and over-populated island with family and friends except for the introduction of a new viral respiratory illness named SARS or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. It was first recognized on February 26th 2003 in Hanoi and its main symptoms and signs included high fever of over 38? Celsius, dry cough, and shortness of breath.1 At the time, my family assumed that, whatever this new disease was, it was contained within Southeast Asia and its effects would not impact our travel plans. How wrong we were! As the date for departure from LAX drew closer, more devastating reports of the rapid and deathly effects of SARS were gathered by the WHO [World Health Organization]. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 10 to 20 percent of the cases, patients required mechanical ventilation and most patients developed pneumonia. It spread by close person-to-person contact. From our relatives and friends abroad, we heard numerous distressed accounts of distantly related people who have fallen ill or possibly have come into contact with SARS. By July 2003, the cumulative number of SARS cases world wide was an impressive 8,445. Taiwan, our destination, proved to be a hot spot with 678 cases of SARS and 84 deaths since March, 2003.2 The problem with the illness was that the speed of research to understand the causative agent and the efforts to contain the illness was slower than the spread [of] disease up to this point. Ne... .... 2 WHO, "Cumulative Number of Reported Probable Cases of SARS," July 1, 2003, (accessed April 24, 2005). 3 WHO, "Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-multi-country outbreak-Update," March 17, 2003, (accessed April 24, 2005). 4 WHO, "Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-multi-country outbreak-Update," March 20, 2003, (accessed April 25, 2005). 5 WHO, "Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-multi-country outbreak-Update," March 21, 2003, (accessed April 25, 2005). 6 WHO, "Update 61-WHO extends its SARS related travel advice to all of Taiwan province, China," May 21, 2003, (accessed April 25, 2005). 7 WHO, "Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-multi-country outbreak-Update", March 8, 2003, (accessed April 24, 2005). 8 CDC, "Frequently Asked Questions About SARS," April 25, 2004, (accessed April 25, 2005).