what is SARS? where is it thought to have orginated?

Question

geography

Answer 1

I have this theory that SARS spread because one person had it and it was their birthday so when the blew out the candles, everybody eating the cake got it too.

Answer 2

SARS was fougth to originate in China

Answer 3

SARS ; SEVERE ACUTE RESPIRATORY SYNDROME
Out break was in mainland china.

Answer 4

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome -- or SARS -- is a mystery virus that that swept across parts of Asia and the Far East, and moved worldwide. It is thought that the virus originated in the Guangdong province in southern China, with neighboring Hong Kong being one of the main centers of the outbreak. Scientists are focusing on two different possible viruses as being the possible cause of the illness: one is from the Coronavirus family (a virus that is often a cause of the common cold), and the other from the paramyxovirus family (which causes measles and mumps). It is believed that a combination of the two viruses might cause the more deadly variation that has been exposed. The spread of the disease prompted Singapore and Hong Kong and parts of Canada to close certain public places and invoke a quarantine law affecting people thought to have had close contact with others who were infected with the disease.

The main symptoms of SARS are high fever (greater than 38 C or 100.4 F), combined with a dry cough, shortness of breath, or breathing difficulties, with other possible symptoms including headache, muscular stiffness, loss of appetite, malaise, confusion, rash and diarrhea. A cocktail of drugs has been shown to be effective in combating the illness. SARS seems to be spread through close contact with an infected person, with the incubation period estimated to be between two and seven days.



Dictionary
Directory > Words > Dictionary SARS (särz)
n.
A viral pneumonia that can progress to respiratory failure and is often characterized by high fever, malaise, dry cough, and shortness of breath.

[S(EVERE) A(CUTE) R(ESPIRATORY) S(YNDROME).]




Britannica
Directory > Reference > Britannica Concise SARS

Highly contagious respiratory illness characterized by a persistent fever, headache, and bodily discomfort, followed by a dry cough that may progress to great difficulty in breathing. SARS appeared in November 2002 in Guangdong province, China, and was brought to Hong Kong in February 2003. As it spread from there to other countries of East Asia and the world, health authorities instituted an unprecedented series of control measures, including quarantines and prohibitions on travel, and in June 2003 the global outbreak was declared to be contained. By that time more than 8,000 cases had been reported, and some 800 people had died. SARS is believed to be caused by a mutant coronavirus, a type usually associated with pneumonia and the common cold. A specific vaccine has not been developed. Treatment is usually restricted to easing the patient's symptoms-providing mechanical ventilation if necessary-until the illness has run its course.

For more information on SARS, visit Britannica.com.

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Encyclopedia
Directory > Reference > Encyclopedia SARS or severe acute respiratory syndrome, communicable viral disease that can progress to a potentially fatal pneumonia. The first symptoms of SARS are usually a high fever, headache and body aches, sore throat, and mild respiratory symptoms; diarrhea may occur. A dry cough and shortness of breath typically develop two to seven days after the first symptoms, and in most persons pneumonia develops in a lobe of the lungs. In 10%–20% of all patients, the pneumonia spreads to other lobes, and death occurs in about 9% of all cases. The death rate is higher among older persons. There is no vaccine or treatment for the virus that causes the disease.
SARS is caused by a coronavirus, one of a group of viruses that are responsible for about one third of all cases of the common cold. The variety that causes SARS had not been previously identified, and may have been transmitted to humans from a civet species in whose blood the virus is also found. Civets are considered a delicacy in SE China, where the disease originated. Infection with SARS mainly occurs when a person in close contact with someone who has the disease is exposed to exhaled droplets. The spread of the disease has been controlled by isolating infected patients and quarantining those exposed to them.

The disease apparently first occurred in Nov., 2002, in Foshan, Guangdong prov., China, but provincial authorities withheld information about it, and when it spread to Beijing local authorities there acted similarly. In Feb., 2003, the World Health Organization first noted reports of cases of atypical pneumonia from China, but Chinese officials did not begin cooperating fully with international experts until April. SARS subsequently spread to some 30 countries on five continents, and affected the economies of China, Hong Kong, and Toronto, where cases were the highest; Taiwan and Singapore were also hard hit. The rapid international spread of the 2002–3 outbreak was facilitated by air travel and the lack of prompt, early information about SARS from Chinese officials.


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