Analysis on clinical and epidemiological features of severe acute respiratory syndrome in Guangzhou military hospital

  Objective   To describe clinical and epidemiological characteristics of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)patients and to provide scientific bases for clinical treat and prevention and control measures against the disease.

  Methods   Epidemiological and clinical data of the SARS patients were collected by means of interview combining the field investigation and consulting case history.The distribution of studied population in place, time and persons were analyzed, as well as clinical features and the level of SARS coronavirus(SARS-CoV)IgG antibody in conv alescent sera with statistic software SPSS 10.0.

  Results   There were a total of 147 SARS patients.109 cses were found in every urban districts of Guangzhou.The rest was fr om non-Guang zhou.There were 7 deaths.32 belonged to clustering cases and 47 had history of contact similar patients.The rate of SARS-CoV IgG antibody of conv alescent patients with contacthistory was higher than that of those with non-contacthistory(P < 0.001), while the rate of patient with fever above 7-day duration was higher than that of those below(P < 0.001).

  Conclusion   Epidemiological characteristics of SARS in Guang zhou military hospital were consistent with those of Guangdong province.Contacthistory in epidemiology and detection of related antibodies in serum contributed to diagnose of SARS cases.There was other sources of infection and routes of transmission.