	Background

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a new, highly infectious viral disease, was firstidentified by the World Health Organization (WHO) in February 2003. (1)
While the overall numbers are not high by comparison with other serious infectious diseases, the speed and distance with which SARS spread raised an alarm over the potential risks tointernational public health. Containment appears to be working; however, there are fears thatanother SARS outbreak might take place during the regular influenza season later in 2003. Thisreport reviews the global response by WHO and those countries most affected. This systemproved to be very useful in picking up telecommunicated alerts in China. Identifying these individuals could be critical to the control of the disease. Overview of the International Health Regulations. Some countries, like Vietnam, immediatelycalled for international support. (41)
Other laws sought to halt the spread of the virus through fines. Vietnam

Vietnam, the poorest of the SARS-affected countries, was the first country to contain the SARS virus. Areas in which improvements have been calledfor in the global response to infectious disease threats include:

		Global Interdependence and Transparency

Lack of transparency in promptly reporting and monitoring SARS outbreaks directly contributed to the spread of the disease worldwide and had wide-ranging impacts beyond the obvioushealth factors. The case of SARS demonstrated that state responsibility within a globalized worlddoes not end at its borders and that future containment relies on openness and cooperation in theinterests of all populations.
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a new highly infectious disease, was first identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) in February 2003. While the overall numberof confirmed cases is not high by comparison with statistics for other infectious diseases, the distanceand speed with which SARS spread raised an alarm over the potential risks to international publichealth. Containment appears to be working; however, there are fears that another SARS outbreakcould take place during the regular influenza season later in 2003.
The United States was instrumental in the global effort to contain the spread of SARS. Affected countries responded in different ways. Singapore and Taiwan acted quickly andencouraged international support in curbing the spread of the virus. China, on the other hand, hasbeen criticized for down-playing the magnitude of the problem, particularly in the early phase of thedisease. This, some analysts contend, ultimately enabled the virus to cross borders and in the caseof Canada, hemispheres.
This report takes a retrospective look at the global response by WHO and by those countries most affected. It reveals some of the challenges that may lie ahead for the global health community,such as global interdependence and transparency, surge capacity, management of public fear andinformation disclosure, coordination of different national responses, and lack of funding. Examiningthe impacts of SARS and lessons learned may be useful in the response to future outbreaks orincidences of new diseases. This report will not be updated.