Specific features of the contact history of probable cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the specific features of the contact history of probable cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Beijing.


METHODS
Data of SARS cases notified from the Beijing Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention (BCDC) and supplemented by other channels were collected. All the data were analyzed by descriptive epidemiology.


RESULTS
(1) The number of probable cases with contact history was significantly higher than the excluded cases. (2) The proportion of probable cases with contact history descended with epidemic development, but this situation did not occur in health care workers (HCWs). (3) The fatality rate of probable cases with contact history was significantly higher than the cases without contact history (OR = 1.489). (4) The proportion of probable cases with contact history was 85.86% among health care workers, which was significantly higher than that of non-health care workers (85.86% v.s. 56.44%, OR=4.69).


CONCLUSIONS
(1) The susceptible persons with contact history may not get infected, and the contact history is just a sufficient condition of infecting SARS; (2) There are 3 conceivable reasons for the descending trend of the proportion in probable cases with contact history; (3) The contact history is one of the risk factors of the death of SARS cases; (4) The risk of contacting with SARS among health care workers is approximately 5 times higher than that of non-HCWs.
School of Health Management and Education, Capital University of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100054, China. liangwannian@sina.com
Wan-Nian
WN
Liang
Min
M
Liu
Qi
Q
Chen
Ze-Jun
ZJ
Liu
Xiong
X
He
Xue-Qin
XQ
Xie
D002681:China; D016358:Contact Tracing; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D008487:Medical History Taking; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D012307:Risk Factors; D045169:Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000635:transmission