You can count on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome -- or SARS, as it's become commonly known -- continuing to be in the news and of high interest to your readers for some time. No matter what your beat, chances are there's a SARS angle: In the past day I've seen SARS-related business, technology and sports stories, not to mention countless local angles and international roundups.
The two most useful sites are those of the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
WHO's site includes the latest numbers of confirmed cases across the globe and information about affected areas; the agency's latest travel warnings, like those issues for Beijing and Toronto this week; images of the virus; and even a color-coded map of reported SARS cases around the world.
Plus, here's
a handy page designed for the media with transcripts of all of WHO's briefings.
The CDC's site has a very useful state-by-state breakdown of the total number of suspected and probable cases, updated daily. It also has a wonderful frequently asked questions page explaining the virus in simple terms: symptoms, how it spreads, who is at risk. And the site includes guidelines for schools, clinicians, patients and people traveling to SARS-affected areas.
Two other handy sites:
Canada Health Department: Includes daily updates of the situation in Canada, including the latest numbers of reports and confirmed cases and travel information.
Hong Kong Department of Health: Includes Hong Kong's latest reports, figures, daily bulletins and even a list of buildings where confirmed cases of SARS have been found.
Note that both the CDC and the WHO sites include many statistics about other diseases that will help you put the SARS outbreak in the proper context.
Coming Tuesday: Sree Sreenivasan
