SARS Outbreak in Taiwan

To the Editor: The article by Hsieh et al. analyzed the daily casereport data for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) from May 5 to June 4, 2003, posted on the Web site for the Taiwan Center for Disease Control, to show how this disease had rapidly spread in the 2003 outbreak (1).Hsieh et al. suggested that infection in hospitalized patients who were classified erroneously as suspected SARS case-patients was a major factor in the rapid spread of the disease in hospitals.Slow classification and delayed placement of these patients in negative-pressure isolation rooms contributed to the high percentage (73%) of nosocomial infection in Taiwan (1).During the outbreak period (stage II), three teams were responsible for classifying SARS cases (2).The team included infectious disease specialists, respiratory specialists, and epidemiologists recruited from major teaching hospitals throughout Taiwan and was organized by the Taiwan Center for Disease Control and the National Health Insurance Bureau.