Assessment of impacts of public health interventions on the SARS epidemic in Beijing in terms of the intervals between its symptom onset, hospital admission, and notification.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the impacts of public health interventions on the outbreak of SARS in Beijing by analyzing the intervals between symptom onset, hospital admission and notification of its cases.


METHODS
Data of SARS cases reported from the Beijing Municipal Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (BCDC) were collected and analyzed by descriptive epidemiology.


RESULTS
In the early epidemic period, the intervals between the disease onset and the hospital admission seemed irregular, so was the intervals between the hospital admission and the notification. After the middle ten days of April, the intervals turned out to be more regular, and the disordered situation in terms of the hospital admission and the case notification was gradually brought under control.


CONCLUSIONS
Public health interventions against SARS has revealed positive impacts on SARS control program in Beijing. The timing and sensitivity of epidemic information reporting systems has been greatly improved in Beijing as a result of successful fight against this disease.
Liang
Wan-Nian
WN
School of Health Management and Education, Capital University of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100054, China. liangwannian@sina.com
Liu
Min
M
Chen
Qi
Q
Liu
Ze-Jun
ZJ
He
Xiong
X
Pan
Yue
Y
Xie
Xue-Qin
XQ
D000328:Adult; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D018563:Disease Notification; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005260:Female; D005334:Fever; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011634:Public Health; D045169:Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013997:Time Factors