[Epidemiological study on severe acute respiratory syndrome in Guangdong province].
OBJECTIVE
To understand the epidemiological characteristics of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreaks in some areas of Guangdong province and to provide scientific basis for prevention and control measures against it.


METHODS
Standardized questionnaire was used on individual cases. Data on the epidemiological characteristics as time, place, persons and aggregation status of SARS cases, development of the epidemics, were analyzed with software EPI 6.0.


RESULTS
The incidence of SARS in Guangdong province was 1.72/100,000 with case fatality rate as 3.64%. Most cases of SARS occurred between the last ten days of January and the first ten days of February with the peak (61.88% of the patients) occurred in the first ten days of February. As to the distribution of place, Pearl river delta region-economically developed with great number of mobile population-was heavily affected areas (account for 96.66% of the total patients). The majority of patients were young adults and medical staff seemed to be the most affected subgroup (account for 24.9% of the patients in total). Family and hospital aggregation of patients comprised the another two important characteristics of SARS (account for 37.1% of the total patients).


CONCLUSIONS
Current knowledge on SARS suggested that it was an air-borne infectious disease with human beings served as the source of infection. The incubation period of the disease was from 1 to 12 days with a median of 4 days. Respiratory secretions and close contact contributed to person-to-person transmission. Most cases were distributed in Pearl river delta region, an area famous for its economic development and heavy flow of mobile population.
Peng
Guo-wen
GW
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of Guangdong Province, Guangzhou 510300, China.
He
Jian-feng
JF
Lin
Jin-yan
JY
Zhou
Duan-hua
DH
Yu
De-wen
DW
Liang
Wen-jia
WJ
Li
Ling-hui
LH
Guo
Ru-ning
RN
Luo
Hui-ming
HM
Xu
Rui-heng
RH
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D016358:Contact Tracing; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D017758:Infectious Disease Transmission, Patient-to-Professional; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D045169:Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires