The following symptoms and complaints may indicate severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS):
Leading symptoms
- Fever > 38 °C, chills.
- Cough, dry at the beginning
- Rapidly increasing dyspnea (shortness of breath) – often leads to oxygen demand.
- General feeling of illness
- Cephalgia (headache)
- Sore throat
- Myalgia (muscle pain)
- Anorexia (loss of appetite)
- Watery diarrhea (diarrhea) – especially in people > 65 years; often then without fever.
- Liver dysfunction – especially in people > 65 years; often then without fever.
Occurrence of symptomatology after close contact with persons with (suspected) SARS infection or stay in a region where local transmission of SARS has occurred in the last ten days.
SARS has rarely occurred in children and then showed a milder course of illness.
A “clinical case of SARS” exists, according to the current EU case definition, when the following four criteria are met:
- Fever ≥ 38 °C
- At least one symptom of respiratory disease (cough, difficulty breathing, shortness of breath)
- Radiologic signs of pulmonary infiltrates consistent with pneumonia (lung inflammation) or respiratory distress syndrome or autopsy findings consistent with pneumonia or respiratory distress syndrome
- Absence of a confirmed alternative diagnosis
