The source of SARS in Kwong Wah Hospital

On February 21, 2003, a retired professor from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen Medical University in Guangdong, China, and his wife went to Hong Kong to attend a wedding. While the professor was helping in the outpatient clinic of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen Medical University, he also He had treated some patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). He developed cold-like symptoms on February 15 of the same year and took antibiotics on his own. His condition improved for a while, but he felt unwell again a few days later (February 19). After arriving in Hong Kong, he stayed for one night in Room 911 of the Capital Hotel (the Capital Hotel was renamed the Kowloon Metropark Hotel in 2006). Ten people, including his brother-in-law, were infected in the hotel in one day, and were later found to be the source of SARS outbreaks elsewhere (Canada and Singapore).

On February 22, the professor went to the Accident and Emergency Department of Kwong Wah Hospital for treatment due to shortness of breath, fever and low blood oxygen saturation (i.e., the oxygen content in his blood). Since the professor's blood oxygen saturation was initially very low and he might need intubation, Dr. Wu Zhenhua, consultant at the Accident and Emergency Department of Kwong Wah Hospital, decided to send him to the intensive care unit. Dr. Qu Zhiliang, director of the intensive care department of Kwong Wah Hospital, learned that the professor had arrived from China. When visiting doctors in Hong Kong, they instructed the intensive care unit nursing staff to prepare an isolation room for the professor because he might be highly contagious. Dr. Qu also instructed all colleagues in the Intensive Care Department to wear N95 masks, gloves and protective gowns during nursing teaching. It was this instruction that saved Kwong Wah Hospital from a possible disaster. The professor died of lung failure two weeks later.