A case-control study of SARS versus community acquired pneumonia

Premorbid factors and outcome associated with respiratory virus infections in a pediatric intensive care unit

“…In the year 2003, young children with SARS were isolated in a separate ward and none required PICU admission at our hospital. 16,17 During the study period, viral investigations were also performed on 134 patients but no virus was found. Data from those children were compared with the 49 children with proven viral diagnosis (Table 4).…”

Bird flu: lessons from SARS

“…7 The most important clue to the diagnosis of SARS in children is a history of exposure to infected adults. 12 The incubation period is between 5 and 10 days. For many adult and paediatric patients, their initial chest radiographs may be normal, while early thoracic computer tomography may show poorly defined, ground-glass opacification of the lung in the subpleural areas.…”

“…13 On the other hand, a recent case-control study in children did not reveal any clinical or initial laboratory results that might reliably differentiate SARS from pneumonia resulting from other viral or bacterial aetiologies. 12 In the early period of the epidemic, the major difficulty was the lack of a reliable and sensitive test for this infection.…”

From SARS and avian flu to swine flu

“…The non-specific laboratory findings such as lymphopenia, thrombocytopenia and elevation of liver enzymes are common in severely ill patients [6]. No clinical or initial laboratory results can reliably differentiate SARS from pneumonia due to other viral or bacterial etiologies [14,15]. Clinical suspicion due to contact with infected adults would prompt early investigation to confirm the diagnosis by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction to detect the virus in respiratory secretions and plasma [16].…”