WHO advice: Adivce from the World Health Organisation
• People should consider postponing travel to SARS affected areas unless travel is absolutely essential. Areas to be avoided include Beijing, Shanxi Province and Guangdong Province in China, Toronto in Canada, and Hong Kong.
• All travellers should be aware of main symptoms and signs of SARS which include a high fever (38 degrees)
And
one or more respiratory symptoms including cough, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing
And
one or more of the following:
Close contact with a person who has been diagnosed with SARS, or a recent history of travel to areas reporting cases of SARS.
• Suspect and probable SARS cases should be hospitalised and placed in isolation
• If suspect cases present in accident and emergency units they should be given a mask to wear and should be seen to in a separate area to minimise transmission to others
• Doctors should take samples (sputum, blood, sera, urine,) to exclude standard causes of pneumonia (including atypical causes) and take chest X-rays.
• At the time of admission the use of antibiotics for the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia with atypical cover is recommended
• Contacts of suspect or probable SARS cases should be placed under active surveillance for 10 days and voluntary home isolation should be recommended to them. Ensure contact is visited or telephoned daily by a member of the public health care team
• Following discharge from hospital, convalescent cases should remain at home for seven days. During this period they should stay indoors, keeping contact with others to a minimum.