title: 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.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: School of Health Management and Education, Capital University of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100054, China. liangwannian@sina.com
authors.forename: Wan-Nian
authors.initials: WN
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Ze-Jun
authors.initials: ZJ
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Xiong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Xue-Qin
authors.initials: XQ
authors.lastname: Xie
mesh_terms: 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