SARS

Treatment for SARS

There's currently no cure for SARS, but research to find a vaccine is ongoing.

A person suspected of having SARS should be admitted to hospital immediately and kept in isolation under close observation.

Treatment is mainlysupportive, and may include:

assisting with breathing using a ventilator to deliver oxygen
antibiotics to treat bacteria that cause pneumonia
antiviral medications
high doses of steroids to reduce swelling in the lungs

There's little in the way of scientific evidence to showthat these treatments are effective. The antiviral medication ribavirin is known to be ineffective at treating SARS.

Medically Reviewed by a doctor on 21 Dec 2018

Articles for sars

Introduction

Read about severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a highly contagious, serious and potentially life threatening form of pneumonia.

The SARS pandemic

SARS originated in China in 2002. It's thought a strain of the coronavirus usually only found in small mammals mutated, enabling it to infect humans. The SARS infection quickly spread from China to o

Viral mutations

Like all living things, viruses are constantly changing and evolving. A mutation iswhere genetic information stored inside an organism changes. Many global outbreaks of infectious illnesses (pandemic

How SARS is spread

SARS is an airborne virus, which means it's spread in a similar way to colds and flu . The SARS virus is spread in small droplets of saliva coughed or sneezed into the air by an infected person. If s

Symptoms of SARS

SARS has flu-like symptoms that usuallybegin two to seven days after infection. In some cases, the time between exposure to the virus and the onset of symptoms (incubation period)can be up to 10 days

Treatment for SARS

There's currently no cure for SARS, but research to find a vaccine is ongoing. A person suspected of having SARS should be admitted to hospital immediately and kept in isolation under close observati

Preventing the spread of SARS

Avoid travelling to areas of the world where there's an uncontrolled SARS outbreak. To reduce your risk ofbecoming infected, avoid direct contact with people withSARS until at least 10 days after the

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