Infection Control and SARS Transmission among Healthcare Workers Taiwan Yee-Chun Chen Pei-Jer Chen

Abstract:  inst SARS, were implemented after the second patient was admitted. The efficacy of these infection -control measures in protecting healthcare workers was determined by: 1) the occurrence of SARS symptoms as defined by WHO criteria (6) and 2) a rise in antibodies to SARS-CoV before and after specific infection-control measures were implemented. The Study From March 8 to March 28, the hospital admitted five patients in whom SARS-CoV infection was subsequently laboratory-confirmed . The patients were isolated in negative -pressure rooms. Patients 2 and 3 were family members of patient 1. Patients 4 and 5 were believed to have contracted SARS on a March 15 flight from Hong Kong to Beijing. Four of the patients progressed rapidly to respiratory failure and were intubated. Healthcare workers caring for these patients were exposed during two periods. During March 8--14, before specific infection-control precautions were implemented, 73 healthcare workers were exposed to patients 1 and 2. Du