The disease was characterized by the lack of response to conventional antibiotic therapy and the occurrence of clusters of cases within a family or healthcare setting.
Before the end of February 2003, a total of 11 index cases occurred independently in 9 cities of Guangdong Province, which was the early phase of the SARS epidemic.
In these cities the cases of SARS were reported, which included 3 cooks, 3 officers, 2 farmers, 2 workers, 2 retired people and 1 businessman.
Their age ranged from 18 to 84 years and the majority 77% were between 30-50 years.
In 21 February 2003, a 65 old professor of urologist who visited Hong Kong from Guangzhou, stayed at Hong Kong’s Metropole Hotel was thought as the infections source that leaded to SARS global transmission.
He had treated patients with ‘atypical pneumonia’ in Guangzhou and had been ill himself since 15 February.
Dr. Carlo Urbani, an epidemiologist and expert on communicable disease was the first World Health Organization officer to identify the outbreak of SARS.
History of SARS
