Host and environment are key factors
- Department of Community and Family Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, School of Public Health, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong; alee@cuhk.edu.hk
On 5 July 2003, the WHO removed Taiwan from its list of areas with recent local transmission of SARS meaning that all known chains of person to person transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus have now been broken.1 However, the WHO executive director for communicable diseases advised that public health should not let down its guard, as more cases could still surface somewhere in the world.1 It is therefore an important public health issue whether the SARS epidemics will recur.
If you had a crystal ball to view the future, this question would be answered. We would make some prediction based on the epidemiological triangle (fig 1) recognising the three main factors—agent, …
