TY - JOUR AU - Esswein, Eric J. AU - Kiefer, Max AU - Wallingford, Ken AU - Burr, Greg AU - Lee, Lukas Jyhun-Hsiarn AU - Wang, Jung-Der AU - Wang, Shun Chih AU - Su, Ih-Jen T1 - Environmental and Occupational Health Response to SARS, Taiwan, 2003 T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2004 VL - 10 IS - 7 SP - 1187 SN - 1080-6059 AB - 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. KW - severe acute respiratory syndrome KW - SARS KW - Taiwan KW - hospitals KW - industrial hygiene KW - healthcare facilities KW - ventilation KW - personal protective equipment KW - infection control KW - airborne infection isolation rooms KW - perspective DO - 10.3201/eid1007.030728 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/10/7/03-0728_article ER - End of Reference