SARS preparedness. Revisiting the procedures to protect staff and help prevent or contain an outbreak

Last year, more than 8,000 people worldwide contracted severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), leading to 774 deaths. Although transmission of the disease was quickly controlled, with the outbreak declared over by July, there is concern that SARS could in fact be a seasonal disease and that another outbreak could occur in 2004. In early January, Chinese health officials confirmed the first non-laboratory-related SARS case since the initial outbreak was contained. The threat of another outbreak underscores the importance of having a response plan in place to safeguard the health of your community and your staff. In this article, we discuss the latest information on the risks of acquiring SARS, review recent recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), discuss the role of hospital facility and clinical engineers in SARS preparations, and update ECRI's recommendations for infection control procedures during equipment servicing. (ECRI first addressed this issue in two June 2003 Health Devices Guidance Articles.) In two appendixes to the current article, we present CDC guidance on patient isolation in an airborne infection isolation room and offer a navigational guide to CDC's SARS Web site.