Managing SARS amidst Uncertainty

Abstract

In November 2002, a businessman from the city of Foshan in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong may have been the first victim of a mysterious illness called severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Guangdong Province, an agricultural area with a population of 75 million, has thousands of farms with large and small animals, a subtropical climate, and rainfall of about 2 m per year. The first patient and many others received no international attention until February 2003, when a physician from Guangdong Province became ill while staying on the ninth floor of a hotel in Hong Kong. Twelve guests became . . .