Investigating Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a newly recognized illness associated with substantial mobidity and mortality. Patients develop fever followed by rapidly progressive and even fatal respiratory disease. SARS is associated with infection with a novel coronavirus. The evaluation of the inflammatory responses evoked by SARS may yield information regarding its pathogenesis and help with patient management. This protocol, then, merely aims to study disease pathogenesis and natural history, by studying samples and data that are collected by outside physicians or physicians at the Clinical Center and sent for evaluation of the inflammatory response.

• INCLUSION CRITERIA - CASES:

Patients fulfilling the CDC case definition or WHO definition for suspected or probable SARS.

Newly identified patients found to have recovered from SARS can also be enrolled.

Exclusion criteria

- CASES:

Patients diagnosed with alternative illnesses as the cause of the symptoms.

Inclusion criteria

- HEALTHY VOLUNTEERS:

For the purpose of this study, a healthy volunteer is defined as a healthy male or female, age 18 and above.

Volunteers will be excluded if they have a pre-existing or concurrent serious chronic medical or psychiatric illness.

Chronic medication use will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

They will also be excluded if they have received an investigational drug in the past 3 months.