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International Conference on SARS - one year after the (first) outbreak

08. - 11.05.2004, Lübeck

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An epidemiological study on the index cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) occurred in different cities among Guangdong province

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  • presenting/speaker Jian-Feng He - Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, China
  • Guo-Wen Peng - Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, China
  • Hui-Zhen Zheng - Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, China
  • Hui-Ming Luo - Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, China
  • Wen-Jia Liang - Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, China
  • Ling-Hui Li - Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, China
  • Ru-Ning Guo - Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, China
  • Zhuo-Hui Deng - Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, China

International Conference on SARS - one year after the (first) outbreak. Lübeck, 08.-11.05.2004. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2004. Doc04sars2.04

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/sars2004/04sars010.shtml

Published: May 26, 2004

© 2004 He et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Objective: To analyze the epidemiological features of the index cases of SARS occurred in different cities in Guangdong province and to trace for the source of infection.

Methods: Standard individual case inventory was adopted to conduct a investigation on index cases and on persons who had close contact with index cases in Guangdong province. Data on the Epidemiological characteristics, secondary case and the links among index cases were analyzed. Result: The index cases between November 16 2002 and April 30,2003, there had been 15 index cases of SARS including 3 cooks, 3 cadres, 3 farmers, 3 retirees, 2 workers, 1 shop attendant, reporting form Guangdong province. Between November 16 2002 and January,2003,there had been 7 cities reported to have to identified index cases of SARS with of 6 them being infected in their own cities and 1 imported form Guangzhou city. All of the cases had no close contacts to similar patients but 6 of them later caused 2nd or even 3rd generation cases of SARS. Most cases hit young people (11/15) with a sex ratio of 1/0.5.The fatality rate of index cases was high (4/15).

Conclusion: No evidence showed that there was direct transmission among the index cases. Data regarding the geographical origin of those index cases led to the assumption that the infection had started in six cities of Pearl River delta region and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.