Virus Alert - Acute respiratory illness outbreak
Virus Alert - Acute respiratory illness
outbreak
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
alert
An outbreak of a new viral illness, Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome or SARS, is causing international
concern. It originated in Guangdong Province (China), and
early cases were reported from Hong Kong and Vietnam. The
infection spread quickly into the western world
. SARS is a viral
form of pneumonia, and is fatal in a small proportion of
cases.
The Chief Medical Office for Scotland regularly updates
advice for travellers in line with revised guidance from
the World Health Organization.
As at 23 May 2003, the advice is to defer travel to:
Beijing, Shanxi, Tianjin, Hebei in China, Inner Mongolia
and Taiwan.
This advice is being reviewed continuously and is in
line with statements issued on May 8, May 21 and updated on
May 23 by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
The Foreign & Commonwealth Office statement
The symptoms of
SARS include high fever (>38ºC) and one or more
respiratory symptoms including cough, shortness of breath
and/or difficulty in breathing. Travellers returning to the
UK experiencing this combination of symptoms while in a
SARS affected area or within 10 days of being in an
affected area, they should seek medical attention and
ensure that information about their recent travel is passed
on to health care staff.
Statements by the Deputy Chief Medical Officer can be
found in the news archive on this site.
The
Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental
Health website maintains an updated resource for current
information on the SARS outbreak for NHSScotland:
Other useful websites include the
Department of Health, the
Health Protection Agency (previously known as the PHLS), the
World Health Organization and the
Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
News Archive