The sudden appearance and rapid spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2002 served to alert the world to the fact that emerging infections are a global problem. Living in affluent societies with well developed health care systems does not necessarily protect people from the dangers posed by life-threatening infections. The SARS epidemic tested global preparedness for dealing with a new infectious agent and raised important questions: how did we do, and what did we learn?This book uses the SARS outbreak as a case study to enumerate the generic issues that must be considered when planning the control of emerging infections. Emerging infections are more than just a current biological fashion: the bitter ongoing experience of AIDS and the looming threat of pandemic influenza teach us that the control of infectious disease is a problem we have not yet solved. Scientists from a broad range of disciplines - biologists, physicians, and policy-makers - all need to prepare. But prepare for what?SARS: A Case Study in Emerging Infections provides an up-to-date and accessible overview of the tasks that must be addressed by a community that wishes to confront emerging infections. Each chapter is written by a world expert and offers an authoritative and timely overview of its subject. While focusing on SARS, the book addresses a whole range of pertinent considerations and issues, from the use of new mathematical models to account for the spread of infection across global airline networks, to a discussion of the ethics of quarantining individuals in order to protect communities. The book will be of interest to students, academics, and policy makers working in the fields of disease ecology, medicine, and public health.
Author(s): Angela R. McLean, Robert M. May, John Pattison, Robin A. Weiss
Edition: 1
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 144
Contents......Page 6
Contributors......Page 8
List of Abbreviation......Page 10
1 Introduction......Page 12
2 Environmental and social influences on emerging infectious diseases: past, present, and future......Page 15
3 Evolutionary genetics and the emergence of SARS Coronavirus......Page 27
4 Influenza as a model system for studying the cross-species transfer and evolution of the SARS coronavirus......Page 35
5 Management and prevention of SARS in China......Page 42
6 Confronting SARS: a view from Hong Kong......Page 46
7 The aetiology of SARS: Koch’s postulates fulfilled......Page 52
8 Laboratory diagnosis of SARS......Page 54
9 Animal origins of SARS Coronavirus: possible links with the international trade in small carnivores......Page 62
10 Epidemiology, transmission dynamics, and control of SARS: the 2002–2003 epidemic......Page 72
11 Dynamics of modern epidemics......Page 92
12 The International response to the outbreak of SARS, 2003......Page 103
13 The Experience of the 2003 SARS outbreak as a traumatic stress among frontline health-care workers in Toronto: lessons learned......Page 107
14 Informed consent and public health......Page 118
15 What have we learnt from SARS?......Page 123
References......Page 128
C......Page 138
F......Page 139
I......Page 140
N......Page 141
S......Page 142
W......Page 143
Z......Page 144
