Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2004 Jul 29;359(1447):1091-105.
doi: 10.1098/rstb.2004.1490.

Epidemiology, transmission dynamics and control of SARS: the 2002-2003 epidemic

Roy M Anderson  1 , Christophe Fraser, Azra C Ghani, Christl A Donnelly, Steven Riley, Neil M Ferguson, Gabriel M Leung, T H Lam, Anthony J Hedley
Affiliations
Review

Epidemiology, transmission dynamics and control of SARS: the 2002-2003 epidemic

Roy M Anderson et al. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. .

Abstract

This paper reviews current understanding of the epidemiology, transmission dynamics and control of the aetiological agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). We present analyses of data on key parameters and distributions and discuss the processes of data capture, analysis and public health policy formulation during the SARS epidemic are discussed. The low transmissibility of the virus, combined with the onset of peak infectiousness following the onset of clinical symptoms of disease, transpired to make simple public health measures, such as isolating patients and quarantining their contacts, very effective in the control of the SARS epidemic. We conclude that we were lucky this time round, but may not be so with the next epidemic outbreak of a novel aetiological agent. We present analyses that help to further understanding of what intervention measures are likely to work best with infectious agents of defined biological and epidemiological properties. These lessons learnt from the SARS experience are presented in an epidemiological and public health context.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Science. 2001 May 11;292(5519):1155-60 - PubMed
    1. Science. 2004 May 14;304(5673):968-9 - PubMed
    1. Lancet. 2003 Apr 19;361(9366):1319-25 - PubMed
    1. N Engl J Med. 2003 May 15;348(20):1977-85 - PubMed
    1. N Engl J Med. 2003 May 15;348(20):1967-76 - PubMed

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources