Possible role of an animal vector in the SARS outbreak at Amoy Gardens.
Possible role of an animal vector in the SARS outbreak at Amoy Gardens.
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DOI：
10.1016/s0140-6736(03)14121-9
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发表时间：
2003-08-16
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Ng SK
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Ng SK
2003年3月底，严重急性呼吸系统综合症（SARS）在香港淘大花园住宅区大规模爆发，在不到一个月的时间内感染了300多名居民，令全世界的流行病学家对这种新疾病的传播方式感到困惑，直到那时人们才认为这种疾病只通过呼吸道飞沫传播。爆发的源头后来被追查到一名SARS患者，他在淘大花园住了两个晚上。官方的解释未能解释为何在短时间内大面积地区有大量居民受到感染。一定是一种强大的环境机制有效地放大和传播了致病因子，才导致了这次疫情。其中一种机制可能是动物载体，最有可能是屋顶鼠，它被指示患者感染，随后将疾病传播到150多个家庭。
A mass outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in the Amoy Gardens housing complex in Hong Kong at the end of March, 2003, affected more than 300 residents in less than a month, and has epidemiologists all over the world puzzled about the mode of transmission of this new disease, which until then was thought to be transmitted solely by respiratory droplets. The source of the outbreak was later traced to an individual with SARS who spent two nights at Amoy Gardens. Official explanations failed to account for the large number of residents infected over a wide area within a short time. A powerful environmental mechanism that efficiently amplified and distributed the causal agent must have been at work to cause this outbreak. One such mechanism could be an animal vector, most probably roof rats, that was infected by the index patient and subsequently spread the disease to more than 150 households.