Demographic and Clinical Features
Most of the case patients were men, and the median
age was 56 years (Table 1). The most common
signs and symptoms were fever (in 87% of
the patients) and cough (in 87%), and 35% presented
with vomiting or diarrhea. Among patients
in whom the illness progressed, the median
time from the onset of symptoms to ICU
admission was 5 days (range, 1 to 10), the median
time to the need for mechanical ventilation
was 7 days (range, 3 to 11), and the median time
to death was 11 days (range, 5 to 27). Three of
four patients (75%) whose cases were detected by
active surveillance during the outbreak, as compared
with 3 of 19 (16%) whose cases were identified
clinically, have recovered (P = 0.04).