Screening at national borders may not be effective in controlling SARS spread

Bodie-Collins, Margaret

de Jong, Dick

King, Arlene

Squires, Susan G.

St. John, Ronald K.

Tam, Theresa WS

Emerging Infectious Diseases

English

PubMed

With the rapid international spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) from March through May 2003, Canada introduced various measures to screen airplane passengers at selected airports for symptoms and signs of SARS. The World Health Organization requested that all affected areas screen departing passengers for SARS symptoms. In spite of intensive screening, no SARS cases were detected. SARS has an extremely low prevalence, and the positive predictive value of screening is essentially zero. Canadian screening results raise questions about the effectiveness of available screening measures for SARS at international borders

Ronald K. St. John

Arlene King

Dick de Jong

Margaret Bodie-Collins

Susan G. Squires

Theresa WS Tam

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Border Screening for SARS

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Border Screening for SARS

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