Using research to prepare for outbreaks of severe acute respiratory infection

The overall mortality was 9.5%. The lowest case fatality proportion was in children under 5 years (1%). The highest case fatality proportions were in adults over 60 years: 18.4% mortality in patients aged 60-79 years and 18.9% in those >80 years. Mortality in low-income/ low-middle-income countries was 4% (12 of 302) and was 14% (53 of 380) in high-income countries. Mortality varied between geographical regions, with East Asia and Pacific at 10.2%, Sub-Saharan Africa 4.3%, South Asia at 0%, North America 13.6%, and Europe and Central Asia 14.3%. The availability of higher level care in intensive care-type settings was variable across regions, with access to ventilators absent in eight sites in low-income/ low-middle-income countries. This possibly explains the unexpected variability in mortality, where less-sick patients were enrolled in Sub-Saharan Africa, given the lack of formal intensive care units in the region.