With all of the hubbub about H1N1 (the swine flu) going around in the last year, it seems as though many people have completely forgotten about another potential pandemic of the twenty-first century. SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) is a disease that attacks the function of the lungs of the person who is being affected. In general, it is fairly easy to identify with a few tests and some information about the travel of the patient, who the patient may have come into contact with and also by the onset of atypical pneumonia accompanied by a fever of at least 100.4 F.

Unfortunately, there aren’t any known cures for treating this disease. There are, however, several supportive care steps that can be taken to ensure that the person has the best chance at making a full recovery. Because SARS is a viral disorder, antibiotics are ineffective in treating it. This means that it will become necessary for hospital staff to offer care such as ventilator support to those people who need it, more than normal oxygen to ensure that the lungs stay full of high quality oxygen as well as the use of antipyretics to reduce the fever of the patient.

Early detection is a key to ensuring a full recovery by those who are infected with SARS. If a patient seeks medical attention at the onset of symptoms it is possible for the disorder to run its course in a matter of just a few days. If caught early, the patient is almost assured the highest possible chance of survival as they will have supportive care available to them from the beginning of their ordeal.

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Virus is well known for what it causes. It makes the body become weakened with lowered respiratory function. The virus initially occurred in Asia and spread to other countries. The epidemic was contained in 2003 and the last human case was also recorded then. Of course it is not claimed that the virus is completely eradicated and it is entirely possible that it could occur once again. It may even exist in other species waiting to be transferred back to humans. The following are the symptoms which are most commonly associated with SARS:

Fever – hyperthermia is very common in many different diseases. The occurrence is very common in SARS as the body tries to fight off the disease.

Myalgia – the muscle pains associated with several conditions are usually present in SARS with greater severity. The cause is most likely due to dehydration and biological processes of the body fighting off the disease.

Lethargy – the tired body causes people to suffer lethargy from SARS. The virus drains the energy of the person by making it difficult to breathe as well as causing a wide variety of secondary symptoms.

Gastrointestinal Symptoms – stomach cramps, nausea and several other gastrointestinal symptoms are very common with the SARS virus. It can worsen with time and make the body very weak.

Cough – The common cough symptom can trick those who have SARS by making them believe that they have a cold or the flu. The SARS virus makes people cough due to the direct effects it has on their respiratory system.

Sore Throat – A sore throat is common as the tonsils and other immune system contributors fight off the infection. The condition could worsen if not treated correctly being uncomfortable for those infected.

SARS (Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome) caused panic around the world when the World Health Organization issued a global alert in early 2003. Very little was known about this virus that causes high fever, generalized discomfort, aches all over, chills, and in some cases sore throat, runny nose, dry cough, shortness of breath, and diarrhea. For some, the respiratory distress can be more serious and become life threatening, requiring mechanical ventilation.

After SARS broke out, scientists wanted to know where this virus originated. Finding the origin of a virus is important in understanding its biology and also helps in developing ways to prevent its spread.

When SARS first broke out in China, scientists looking for the virus’ origin initially determined that the reservoir host was the civet cat, an animal with a cat-like appearance that lives in Southern China. The civet cat is eaten as a delicacy in Southern China. The reservoir host is the animal that harbors a pathogen, allowing it to survive, but does not get sick from it. This allows the pathogen to be transmitted to the primary host, the host in which the pathogen is able to reproduce and cause disease. Pathogens need these hosts so they can infect the primary host, so determining the reservoir host is important in containing the spread of disease. As a result of this information, thousands of civet cats were killed to prevent any new outbreaks of SARS. But further studies determined that the reservoir host for SARS was the Chinese horseshoe bat, and they passed on it on to both civets and humans.

When SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) first broke out as a pandemic in November 2002, people became very scared to even ride a local bus, never mind board an airplane and fly to another country! But, with the biggest threat SARS has ever been behind us, people are wondering if they should still be wary of SARS in certain countries, or if all areas of the world are now safe to travel to.

Although governments never actually banned people from traveling to other countries due to the risk of SARS, travel to China, Singapore, Canada, and Vietnam slowed down considerably after the threat spread from Hong Kong to these other areas. Airports were filled with people wearing masks and gloves in order to keep them from obtaining the disease. But is all of this still really necessary?

The threat of SARS died down in July 2003 but world authorities still continued to be very cautious. Many were still in quarantine and by that time, thousands of cases around the globe had been confirmed while many people also died from the disease. However, it’s believed now that through great measures taken by the World Health Organization and other governments around the world, that the world community is safe from this disease. Of course, you should always take appropriate measures when traveling to any country. And even when you’re not traveling it’s important to always protect yourself and others by washing hands and trying to prevent the spread of germs. But the days of wearing facial masks in airports and down city streets is definitely over and no longer necessary. It’s also important to always be aware of the threat of SARS. With awareness and proper preventative measures, we can all help prevent another outbreak of SARS and keep our world safe for everyone and anyone!

The treat of sars seems to have passed or the media no longer thinks that it is worthy of today’s news however the fact is that no reported cases of sars have been made public for nearly six years since the original outbreak in 2003. The severe acute respiratory syndrome was a major scare to the world because of the rapid way t spread around the globe and the fact that this so called flu was killing its patients within days and weeks of them catching the disease. Like many other pandemics the sars problem created global confliction with travelers becoming the targets of scrutiny even if they were feeling the slightest bit unwell after a long haul flight.

The infection was thought to have originated in the land of China and has killed almost one thousand people to date. However now that the problem has stopped only a few countries have relaxed their laws on travel and any person looking sickly after a flight may be quarantined for the safety of the country they land in.

The sars pandemic was one that like terrorism threatened the world to turn up in any place at any time and infect a whole group of people without thinking twice about it. The sars virus was put under scrutiny after several deaths in eastern countries and then the rapid spread of the infection around the world after the first confirmed cases. The terror at the time of this outbreak was keeping people at home from work and from school while others braved public spaces with masks with were a pathetic attempt to prevent the virus from passing from one person to another.

Sars quarantine zones were set up in many countries where the infection was said to have traveled. The high temperature and other symptoms of the infection made it difficult to determine at first until other signs became more obvious. Until such times as the patient was cleared of all infections they would be isolated for the safety of the public.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome is the medical name for the more commonly known sars epidemic which has been circling the world for quite a number of years now. The disease attacks the respiratory system which causes the lungs to become incapacitated and eventually they give up working. Originally the claims say that the epidemic started in China and then moved to over 30 other countries around the world which then became a pandemic which means multiple country disease problems.

Pneumonia type symptoms are the first signs of the sars disease as well as common flu like symptoms and usually a high fever. The disease can be spread from one human to another through air born particles which is why there are many people opting to use face masks when they walk through airports or other foreign countries such as China or Singapore.

The patients of sars are always isolated when the condition is confirmed. The only help that the doctors can offer is through breathing which is via supplemented oxygen. A vaccine was developed in China in 2004 however this only gave part of the population immunity against the disease rather than the whole community.

Sars is another name for severe acute respiratory syndrome which is a medical term for a respiratory disease found in humans. This condition is cause by a virus known as SARS coronavirus which infected the lungs of people and in 2002 had the world in panic as it spread through Asia killing many of the infected. The mortality rate for the condition of sars grow as the persons age increased reaching the highest for people aged 70 years and older. The original host of the sars virus belongs to an animal where the virus mutated and attached itself to humans. It is believed that the sars virus still exists in the animal population.

Fever, sore throat and dry coughs can be warning signs of the sars virus. Unfortunately these symptoms are also the warning signs for the common coughs and colds that frequent us each year. Because it is a respiratory disease sars is naturally known to cause breathing problems one settled into the host. The only common symptom to people suffering from the sars virus is a temperature of 38 degrees. Other than that sars would be a difficult virus to detect by yourself or even the doctors. This causes an even greater problem because sufferers should be isolated and undiagnosed sufferers will easily spread the virus.

Antipyretics are the only known antiviral medicine that has any effect on sars. Generic antibiotics have little effect if any. The spread of the virus is so easy that doctor and nurses are easily infected and are put at great risk. The only vaccine to have a good positive result was founded by the Chinese and provided antibodies for two thirds of the subjects who took the antivirus medicine. Sars vaccine medicine to cover an entire country would cost billions in research and development so is not generally feasible. Therefore for most of the world sars is left to be fought after the contraction of the virus.