Public Health Lessons from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome a Decade Later

Public Health Lessons from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome a Decade Later

WANG Yu, Jeffrey P. Koplan, Thomas Tsang, David Butler-Jones

The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2002–2003 exacted considerable human and economic costs from countries involved. It also exposed major weaknesses in several of these countries in coping with an outbreak of a newly emerged infectious disease. In the 10 years since the outbreak, in addition to the increase in knowledge of the biology and epidemiology of this disease, a major lesson learned is the value of having a national public health institute that is prepared to control disease outbreaks and designed to coordinate a national response and assist localities in their responses.

2013

Public Health, Viruses, coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome, SARS, disease threats

DOI: 10.3201/eid1906.121426

Emerging Infectious Diseases

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Infectious and parasitic diseases, Medicine