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This is not the first time the United States EMS profession has dealt with a highly contagious disease. SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) first appeared in 2003 spreading over 26 countries and infecting over 8,000 patients in a single year. MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) first appeared in 2012 and primarily established its roots in the Middle East (hence the name). Both SARS and MERS carried the same upper respiratory and flu-like symptoms including fever, general malaise, cough and dyspnea (difficulty breathing). In both viruses, symptoms were often masked for 14 days allowing people to unknowingly transmit the disease. One of the main reasons COVID-19 is causing so much concern is because SARS had a mortality rate of about 1 in 10 and MERS had a mortality rate of about 1 in 3. [3]
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