Stopping the SARS Epidemic
by What did the world governments do to stop the outbreak of SARS epidemic between 2002 and 2003? Find out what made the difference and how the epidemic was stopped.
In November of 2002, Guangdong province of China experienced an outbreak of a flu type virus that Chinese doctors began to call Atypical Pneumonia by early 2003. The virus was proven extremely contagious as it spread throughout South Asia and became internationally termed Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). By March 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued the first global alerts to SARS and began to get countries together to fight the epidemic as the virus made its way to North America. Chinese Ministry of Health, which initially did not react well to the virus, began to call for international help in dealing with the problem. In Hong Kong, entire city residences were quarantined and told not to leave their house for weeks and began to move the extremely sick to isolated tourist resorts and rural areas to stop the spread of the virus.
In April 2003, due to international criticism of China for its lack of cooperation – China begins to work with WHO more openly and closely. Meanwhile in America, U.S. President George W. Bush signs an executive order allowing individuals with the virus to be quarantined against their will to stop its spread in the US. U.S. National Institute of Health also made the announcement it is working to develop a vaccine for SARS. By the middle of April 2003, Canadian scientists identified the unknown virus’s DNA sequences, making it easier to find a cure. In China, due to underreporting of numbers, the infection continued to spread rapidly so the Chinese health minister was kicked out of the party and out of his office – eventually punished. By the end of April, public places in China were closed off such as parks, libraries and cinemas and even marriages suspended.
The international community and the US instituted travel restrictions on China, Taiwan and other Asian countries to slow down the spread. Eventually as the rate of new infections dropped due to good containment by the governments, travel restrictions and other restrictions were eased. By May 2003 infections dropped and most countries were recovered but infection in China continued well into May of 2004. But eventually SARS lost its momentum as countries worked together to contain it, WHO helped nations facilitate dialogue among the scientific community and the information shared was used to stop the SARS epidemic.
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