WHO Case Definition

As defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), a suspected case is classified as being disease in a person with a documented fever (temperature >38 °C), lower respiratory tract symptoms, and contact with a person believed to have had SARS or a history of travel to a geographic area where there has been documented transmission of the illness.

A suspected case with 1) chest radiographic findings of pneumonia, 2) acute respiratory distress syndrome, or 3) an unexplained respiratory illness resulting in death with autopsy findings consistent with the pathology of ARDS without an identifiable cause is considered a probable case.

The WHO Case Definition is available at: http://www.who.int/csr/sars/casedefinition/en/.

Clinicians are advised that patients should not have their case definition category downgraded while still awaiting results of laboratory testing or on the basis of negative results. See "Use of laboratory methods for SARS diagnosis", http://www.who.int/csr/sars/labmethods/