Writting about SARs disease - Essay Example

o appropriate medications and swift action on the parts of doctors and nurses to help contain the virus, there were only eight reported cases in the United States that year. “All of these people had traveled to other parts of the world with SARS. SARS did not spread more widely in the community in the United States” (CDC, 2005). However, this does not mean that the virus could not possibly spread in the US general population at some point in the future or that the danger of the illness should be underestimated or ignored.

To ensure that a general outbreak does not occur, it is up to the medical community to remain informed about the disease, including knowledge regarding what causes it, how it is transmitted and the best ways of treating it. With this knowledge in hand, it is possible to develop intervention strategies appropriate for use by community health nurses. The SARS virus is considered a febrile severe lower respiratory illness. This simply means that it is an illness that attacks the lower respiratory system and is accompanied by fever.

Most patients experience a high fever at the onset of the disease of something higher than 100.4F. This is most often accompanied by a headache, overall body aching and a sense of discomfort regardless of attempts to the contrary. According to the CDC, “some people have mild respiratory symptoms at the outset. About 10 percent to 20 percent of patients have diarrhea” (2005). This condition typically persists for anywhere from two to seven days before the patient develops a dry cough.

An overwhelming number of patients with the illness then begin to develop pneumonia. Other common symptoms of the disease include rashes, loss of appetite and general confusion. In attempting to discover the cause of the disease, scientists have identified a novel coronavirus now referred to as SARS-associated coronoavirus. A coronavirus is a subgroup of the RNA viruses. This particular type is unique in that they