Severe acute respiratory syndrome: an update.

Purpose Of Review: An international outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, a recently recognized syndrome caused by the newly identified severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus, began in November 2002 and ended in July 2003. Since then, a large body of research on the syndrome has been published; the most updated developments are summarized here.

Recent Findings: Recent findings suggest that animal severe acute respiratory syndrome-like coronaviruses may have been transmitted to humans without detection for years before the recent outbreak, and that such transmission may be continuing today.

Identification of severe acute respiratory syndrome in Canada.

Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a condition of unknown cause that has recently been recognized in patients in Asia, North America, and Europe. This report summarizes the initial epidemiologic findings, clinical description, and diagnostic findings that followed the identification of SARS in Canada.

Methods: SARS was first identified in Canada in early March 2003.

Evaluation of susceptibility testing to detect fluoroquinolone resistance mechanisms in Streptococcus pneumoniae.

To determine if susceptibility testing of Streptococcus pneumoniae could detect those isolates that had one of the recognized mechanisms of fluoroquinolone resistance, 101 isolates were selected; the levofloxacin MIC for 28 of these isolates was > or =4 microg/ml. Only isolates with both parC and gyrA mutations or with no recognized resistance mechanisms were reliably identified by using these results. Isolates with only a parC mutation could not be detected reliably using any susceptibility testing method.