Environmental and Occupational Health Industrial hygiene emergency response to SARS in Taiwan

Burr, Greg

Esswein, Eric J.

Kiefer, Max

Lee, Lukas Jyhun-Hsiarn

Su, Ih-Jen

Wallingford, Ken

Wang, Jung-Der

Wang, Shun Chih

Emerging Infectious Diseases

English

PubMed

The Taiwan Department of Health requested assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in controlling an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The CDC SARS response team included industrial hygiene specialists from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Four NIOSH specialists visited hospitals and medical centers throughout Taiwan and assisted with designing and evaluating ventilation modifications for infection control, developed guidelines for converting hospital rooms into SARS patient isolation rooms, prepared designs for the rapid conversion of a vacated military facility into a SARS screening and observation facility, assessed environmental aspects of dedicated SARS hospitals, and worked in concert with the Taiwanese to develop hospital ventilation guidelines. We describe the environmental findings and observations from this response, including the rapid reconfiguration of medical facilities during a national health emergency, and discuss environmental challenges should SARS or a SARS-like virus emerge again

Eric J. Esswein

Max Kiefer

Ken Wallingford

Greg Burr

Lukas Jyhun-Hsiarn Lee

Jung-Der Wang

Shun Chih Wang

Ih-Jen Su

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Environmental and Occupational Health Response to SARS, Taiwan, 2003

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http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=3323342

Environmental and Occupational Health Response to SARS, Taiwan, 2003

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