Severe Respiratory Syndrome

Back in April of 2012, a twenty-five year old man, who had recently traveled to parts of the Middle East, became ill in Saudi Arabia (WHO). He visited the hospital once he started seeing symptoms of an flu-like illness (WHO). To figure out what this virus was, doctor and researchers collected nasal sputum from individuals who were sick with what seemed like a new strain of the flu (WHO). This is when they discovered that the infectious agent of the illness was actually a coronavirus, which they called a novel coronavirus (CDPH). However, they renamed the coronavirus Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, also known as MERS-CoV (CDC). Prior to this occasion in 2012, it had never been seen in humans before, and it continued to spread from here (WHO). Symptoms of MERS-CoV include fever, cough, shortness or breath and difficulty breathing. (CDPH). This symptoms clearly explain why this coronavirus can be mistaken for a type of flu. Some patients may experience worse symptoms like gastrointestinal problems, diarrhea and kidney failure (WHO). Also, individuals who are infected but have weak immune systems may have an atypical presentation (WHO).

The aftermath of this outbreak helped the world learn how to respond to deadly illnesses in an effective manor as well as moved the cause of science forward by striving to find a way to treat this disease. The event lead to the organizations responsible for controlling these outbreaks to grow and develop more proficient ways to battle the flu as well as many other sicknesses. Today, “international organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) provide leadership in global health matters. The WHO’s preparedness plans against influenza pandemics include six levels of pandemic alert, which determine the recommended actions it should take in conjunction with the international community, governments, and industry.6” This expansion has saved millions of lives as now flu vaccines are usually available in most communities as well as treatments for nearly every ailment known. Without these organizations influence the Swine Flu epidemic could have been much more devastating along with the hundreds of other disease that could have wiped out entire populations without the intervention of these groups. The government was also changed by this as they had

Twenty-eight percent of the U.S. population and a fifth of the world’s population fell victim to this plague. Estimations of death “range from 20 million to more than 100 million” (Kolata 7). There is no definite number, as some of the places hit with this pandemic didn’t keep mortality records because there was no test to know if people had the flu or not. To give some idea of the deadliness of this influenza, if our population today were to be infected with this plague, it would kill 1.5 million Americans. That is more than the number of people killed “in a single year by heart disease, cancers, strokes, chronic pulmonary disease, AIDS, and Alzheimer’s disease combined” (Kolata 7). Some even say this pandemic was responsible for killing more humans in just a few months than any other disease in

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral disease. Its cause is the coronavirus, and it has been a pandemic infection in the past (Thiel, 2007). While SARS has not been completely eradicated, the last confirmed infection was in 2004 and was laboratory induced (Thiel, 2007). The last confirmed, naturally-occurring case was in 2003 at the end of an outbreak (Smith, 2006; Blendon, 2003). There were few SARS-related deaths in the United States, but there were numerous infections. All of those people acquired the disease from traveling abroad, and it did not spread widely as the US population feared it might. The majority of SARS cases were in China, which caused some Asian-Americans in the US to feel stigmatized (Thiel, 2007). The following picture shows the cases and deaths by country: INCLUDEPICTURE "http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/Sars_Cases_and_Deaths.pdf/page1-776px-Sars_Cases_and_Deaths.pdf.jpg" * MERGEFORMATINET

SARS, also known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, caused a major epidemic in 2002-2003. The virus had originated in the middle east area from a mammal group handled and bred in the first effect area. The virus had developed and was transmitted to the people handling the animals. The handlers would contract the virus and then would spread it to others around them. The disease was able to be transferred or passed on to others by means of close contact and or the air. The virus itself was not noticeable unless tested or until it had further developed. Anyone who had contracted the disease only showed flu like symptoms when first diagnosed with the virus. However, these would soon worsen and even take the lives of people. Though it only affected

In the last three years a novel coronavirus has swept through countries like Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, and most

SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) is responsible for the first pandemic of the 21st century. On November 2, 2002 SARS-CoV first emerged in Southern China. This unidentified agent had caused around 300 cases of pneumonia in people. The World Health Organization issued a global alert on March 12, 2003 regarding these and similar cases in Hong Kong and Vietnam. This clinical syndrome subsequently became known as SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). Since then, 8098 people in 26 countries have had probable SARS diagnosed, 774 of whom have died, yielding a global case-fatality rate of 10%.[1] In July 2003, the SARS –CoV infection had ended. This left an adverse economic impact in the affected areas and posed an enormous public health

SARS had broken out in 2003 at this time no one knew what SARS even was, Scientist had begun doing everything to figure out the cause of this odd disease. CDC (Centers for Disease Control) paired with WHO (World Health Organization) to determine the cause of a pneumonia in Southeast Asia. March 12, this odd disease was given a name, sever acute respiratory syndrome. The symptoms of SARS is similar to flu-like symptoms but overtime can become worse. Common symptoms of SARS are chills, shaking,

Within the household, it is necessary for those that would have a higher risk of complications from the virus to not come in contact with those that have been infected. With the proper health resources, knowledge on how to control the infection from spread is as important as tackling the virus itself.

Example the last flu happen in 2009, and causing 14142 death in the world (WHO 2014). World Health Organization (WHO 2009) has described six-stage classification process, which from the first few infections in humans of a new influenza virus by moving to the pandemic. This will start the virus mainly infects animals, there are some cases of animals infected, then traverse the virus began spreading among people direct the stage at the end of the pandemic from the new virus has spread worldwide. Pandemic disease includes AIDS, dengue, cholera, influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome (WHO 2015).

SARS is caused by an unrecognised coronavirus. Researchers have not discovered from where the virus developed ,however, they assume that it is linked to the mammal civets. SARS causes are not evident ,yet it spreads efficiently ,moreover similarly

After being first diagnosed to that patient in Saudi Arabia, MERS has been found throughout the middle east in areas such as Qatar, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and China, however these have all been found in small family clusters (Assiri et al 2013). Infectious diseases such as corona viruses typically have primary and secondary hosts which they may thrive in. Primary or reservoir hosts are typically unaffected by the disease and use these hosts as a vector in order to get from point A to B infecting secondary hosts along the way. Bats are reservoirs to a number of viruses which include rabies, Henda and Nipah viruses, and Severe acute respiratory syndrome CoV or SARS (Memish et al 2013). SARS was the first introduced zoonotic corona virus which had originated from bats, which would make MERS-CoV the second zoonotic disease that has been introduced which is also highly pathogenic and causes severe respiratory problems in human populations (De Wit et al 2013). With MERS-CoV emergence coming up in predominately middle eastern countries, it is believed that bats are the reservoir species for MERS (Sharif-Yakan & Kanj 2014).). It is thought that bats are the reservoir species because of the similarity it shares with other corona viruses,

What is SARS? Severe acute respiratory syndrome or in short SARS is a member of the coronavirus family of viruses, it is considered to be a life threatening form of pneumonia.

Infectious disease is considered an ever evolving issue world-wide. A number of health officials and idealists believed that the threat of infectious disease would have been eradicated by now.1 Infectious disease remains the leading cause of death across the globe and the third leading cause of death in the United States.2 Within the scope of infectious disease, the most common cause of illness is viral respiratory tract infections, also referred to as VRTI.3 Recently, a new strain of virus related to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome commonly referred to as SARS has been identified.4,5 The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome is a viral infection that affects the respiratory tract in humans and has recently been discovered in a small

According to the European Centre of Disease Prevention and Control (2014), the first incident of MERS-Cov was reported from Saudi Arabia in June 2012. Recent reports from The World Health Organization as of May 13 indicated 1,180 confirmed cases within 25 countries, and a total of 483 deaths have been recorded thus far. At this point MERS-Cov has a 40% mortality rate that continues to rise as the death toll increases from new infectious cases. It has been confirmed that all cases that were reported to WHO outside of the Middle East have had a history of recent travel to that region or have been in contact with a person who has travelled to this part of the world. It is because of this that surveillance and control measure in response to this fatal virus should be created and implemented to eradicate MERS-CoV from spreading to different regions of the world for future pilgrimage (Zumla, Hui, & Perlman 2015).