Expanding ICU facilities in an epidemic: recommendations based on experience from the SARS epidemic in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Epidemics have the potential to severely strain intensive care resources and may require an increase in intensive care capability. Few intensivists have direct experience of rapidly expanding intensive care services in response to an epidemic. This contribution presents the recommendations of an expert group from Hong Kong and Singapore who had direct experience of expanding intensive care services in response to the epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Transmission of SARS to healthcare workers. The experience of a Hong Kong ICU.

Objective: To describe the extent and temporal pattern of transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) to intensive care unit staff.

Design: Retrospective observational cohort study.

Setting: University hospital intensive care unit, caring solely for patients with SARS or suspected to have SARS.

The effect of adsorption, filter material and point of dilution on antibiotic elimination by haemofiltration an in vitro study of levofloxacin.

We studied an in vitro model of continuous venous-venous haemofiltration (CVVH), into which levofloxacin 100 mg was infused, to determine levofloxacin adsorption and to determine the effect of filter material and point of dilution (pre- or post-filter) on sieving coefficient. Mean (standard deviation; S.D.

Increase in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus acquisition rate and change in pathogen pattern associated with an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Background: An outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) occurred in our 22-bed intensive care unit (ICU; Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong, HKSAR, China) from 12 March to 31 May 2003, when only patients with SARS were admitted. This period was characterized by the upgrading of infection control precautions, which included the wearing of gloves and gowns all the time, an extensive use of steroids, and a change in antibiotic prescribing practices. The pattern of endemic pathogenic organisms, the rates of acquisition of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and the rates of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) were compared with those of the pre-SARS and post-SARS periods.