ESNPC

SARS
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, had infected fewer than 1,500 people (with 53 deaths) as of March 28, 2003, according World Health Organization statistics. Health investigators first looked at a family of viruses called paramyxovirus as a possible cause of the infection, but more recent reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have focused on a group called the coronaviruses, which are related to the common cold. There is still very little information as to definite causes and treatments of the illness.
Additional steps needed to confirm this hypothesis include further culturing of the virus from appropriate specimens, sequencing the viral genome, and examining specimens from patients at different stages of their illness.
“This collaboration among scientists led by the World Health Organization (WHO) is unprecedented,” said CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding. “We certainly have more work to do, but we think we are on the right track. And our systems to identify cases and investigate them are working too, thanks to all the frontline clinicians and state and local health departments around the country.”
Do we need to worry? That depends on whether the illness continues to jump borders before we can find a way to stop it. At this point, the vast majority of cases have occurred in Guangdong in the Peoples’ Republic of China; Hanoi, Vietnam; Hong Kong or Singapore. Officials are on the lookout for people with a rapid onset of high fever (>100.4 degrees) and clinical findings of respiratory illness including cough, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing; or with a diagnosis of pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome. Even though there have been only 39 reported cases of SARS in the United States (with no deaths), it’s still best to see your physician as soon as possible if you have any of these symptoms.
You should also see a doctor if you have recently traveled out of the country to areas with suspected or documented community transmission of SARS, or have recently had close contact with anyone who has recently traveled to a SARS area and acquired a respiratory illness.
This article includes information from:
US Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC)
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
World Health Organization (WHO)
Article Created: 2003-03-28
Article Updated: 2003-03-28

I was working as a doctor in the Dominican Republic at that time and there was real concern about the possibility of a pandemic. It did not materialize but thankfully disappeared as quickly as it started.

Here is a remark

"Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) — a contagious and sometimes fatal respiratory illness — first appeared in China in November 2002. Within six weeks, SARS had spread worldwide, carried around the globe by unsuspecting travelers. Eventually, 8,000 people were infected and 800 died of the disease.

The rapid and unexpected spread of SARS alarmed both health officials and the public. SARS — the first newly emerged, serious and contagious illness of the 21st century — illustrated just how quickly infection can spread in a highly mobile and interconnected world. On the other hand, concerted international cooperation allowed health experts to contain SARS just months after its emergence. What’s more, scientists now believe that some cases originally diagnosed as SARS may actually have been avian influenza (bird flu), potentially a far more deadly disease."

http://www.mayoclinic.com/print/sars/DS00501/DSECTION=all&METHOD=print

So Avian influenza may have been the cause of some of the cases.

SARS or Avian bird flu, both remind us of the possibility of a 1917 Spanish Influenza like pandemic is real today.

We were lucky with SARS (so far), but preparation for a swift pandemic is wise today.

Lay in a supply of water, food, and self isolation plan for at least two weeks for such an event today.

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