Maintaining dental education and specialist dental care during an outbreak of a new coronavirus infection. Part 1: a deadly viral epidemic begins.

During the three months from March 2003 the economically vibrant city of Hong Kong was seriously dislocated after becoming 'second port of call' of the new and potentially fatal disease, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The uncertainties during that period had a significant impact on the provision of dental care. However the city's only dental hospital continued to function and to support the Faculty of Dentistry of the University of Hong Kong in educating dental students and other members of the dental team. At the time of writing no transmissions of the disease have been attributed to procedures associated with dental healthcare. This article chronicles the sequence of events during the outbreak from a dental perspective. It highlights information that may be useful to dental colleagues who might someday be confronted with similar outbreaks of newly emerged potentially lethal infections.