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Infectious diseases are illnesses caused by pathogenic microorganisms, including viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites. These diseases can be transmitted from one individual to another, as well as through contaminated food, water, and insect bites, infectious agents invade the body, multiply, and disrupt normal bodily functions, leading to various health issues. However, due to antimicrobial resistance, the need to develop nanoenabled medicine gained significant attention recently. The management of infectious diseases using carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is an emerging field that leverages the unique properties of these nanostructures for enhanced drug delivery and therapeutic applications. Therefore, this review explores the transformative potential of CNTs in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of infectious diseases. As global health challenges escalate due to emerging pathogens and increasing drug resistance, the need for innovative solutions becomes critical. Moreover, the review systematically examines the unique properties of CNTs, including their mechanical, thermal, and electrical characteristics, that make them suitable for various biomedical applications. Further, the review highlights recent advancements in CNTs-based technologies, focusing on their roles in biosensing, drug deliver, and antiviral agents. Furthermore, the review also discusses how CNTs enhance the sensitivity and specificity of diagnostic tools, enabling rapid detection of infectious agents. Additionally, the multifunctional capabilities of CNTs in therapeutic applications, such as targeted drug delivery and pathogen inactivation, are also discussed. Challenges related to the clinical translation of CNTs technologies, including safety, biocompatibility, and regulatory concerns, are critically analyzed. In addition, the review concludes with clinical data by emphasizing the need for interdisciplinary collaboration to harness the full potential of CNTs in the management of infectious diseases, paving the way for future research and development in this promising field.

In this retrospective study, clinical data including clinical manifestations, routine blood tests, chest radiographic imaging from 77 severe cases of SARS treated with integrated Chinese and Western medicine were collected and statistically analyzed. Twenty-nine (37.6%) patients were admitted to the intensive care unit, non-invasive ventilation was used in 40 (51.9%) cases, and invasive ventilatory procedure was performed in eight (10.3%) cases. Seventy (90.9%) patients were clinically cured and seven (9.0%) died. The duration of defervescence was 8.3 ± 5.0 days after admission. In the early stage, normal leucocyte count was seen in 46 (75.4%) of the 61 patients tested, decreased leucocyte count in 13 (21.3%) and elevated leucocyte count in only two (3.2%) cases. A decreased lymphocyte count was also seen in 23 (37.7%) cases of the 61 patients tested on admission, and by day 14, the number of patients with decreased lymphocyte count (1.11 ± 0.66 × 10⁹) increased to 32 (47.7%) in 67 cases examined. Neutral granulocyte count was normal or decreased in 58 (95.0%) patients on admission, but elevated from the 7th day onward and peaked on day 21 in 32 (65.3%) of the 49 cases tested. All of the blood abnormalities returned to normal in the convalescent stage. Twenty-nine (37.6%) of the 77 severe cases of SARS patients demonstrated an extensive lung involvement. In comparison with the non-severe SARS cases, this group of patients showed significantly more pneumonic air-space opacities and ground glass-like changes on the chest radiographs (p < 0.05, χ² test). The role Chinese medicine played in the treatment of SARS was discussed.

At the peak of the SARS epidemic in Hong Kong, hospital workers were under high risks of contraction of the infection. Herbal preparations had been used historically in China to treat influenza-like diseases. During the SARS outbreak, herbal preparations had been used jointly with standard modern treatment in China. As a means to protect the at-risk hospital workers, an innovative herbal formula was created and consumed by 3160 of them in two weeks. During the two weeks, symptoms and adverse effects were close monitored; 37 of them had their serum checked for immunological responses.

The results showed that none of the herb consumers contracted the infection, compared to 0.4% among the non-consumers. Adverse effects had been infrequent and mild. There were hardly any influenza-like symptoms and the quality of life improved. In the group who volunteered to have their immunological state checked, significant boosting effects were found. It was concluded that there might be a good indication for using suitable herbal preparations as a means of preventing influenza-like infection. The mode of preventive effect could be treatment of the infection at its very early stage instead of producing a period of higher immunological ability, as in the case of vaccination.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been used for prevention and treatment of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Hong Kong during the outbreak in spring 2003. We investigated the immunomodulating effects of an innovative TCM regimen derived from two herbal formulas (Sang Ju Yin and Yu Ping Feng San) for treating febrile diseases. Thirty-seven healthy volunteers were given the oral TCM regimen daily for 14 days. Peripheral venous blood samples were taken on days 0, 15 and 29 for hematology, biochemistry and immunology tests, including the measurement of blood lymphocyte subsets and plasma T-helper lymphocyte types 1 and 2 cytokines and receptor. After 3 months, 23 of the volunteers participated in a control study without TCM treatment for the same time course of blood tests. Two volunteers withdrew on day 2, due to headache and dizziness. All others remained well without any side effects. No participants showed significant changes in their blood test results, except that the T-lymphocyte CD4/CD8 ratio increased significantly from 1.31 ± 0.50 (mean ± SD) on day 0 to 1.41 ± 0.63 on day 15 (p < 0.02), and reduced to 1.32 ± 0.47 on day 29 (p < 0.05). In the control study, there were no changes in the CD4/CD8 ratio. The transient increase in CD4/CD8 ratio was likely due to the TCM intake. We postulate that the administration of the innovative TCM may have beneficial immunomodulatory effects for preventing viral infections including SARS.

Chinese medicine (CM) has been used to control infectious diseases for thousands of years. In 2003 outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) occurred in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. In view of the possible beneficial effect of CM on SARS, we conducted this study to examine whether CM is of any benefit as a supplementary treatment of SARS. Four severe laboratory-confirmed SARS patients received routine western-medicine treatment plus different supplementary treatment: CM A, CM B and CM C (placebo control). We reported the course of the cases in terms of changes in chest radiographic scores. Case 1 treated as a placebo control passed away on the 9th day after onset of disease. The other three cases treated with CM A or CM B survived. The initial findings seemed to indicate a favorable effect of CM on management of SARS. The findings need to be verified with a larger sample. Using CM as a supplementary treatment of severe SARS seems to indicate that natural herbal medicine can be used against avian influenza. Hence, such related experience or clinical trials should be taken into consideration when facing the possible outbreak of avian influenza in the future.

During the SARS crisis in China, 40–60% infected patients, at some stages of their treatment, received Chinese medicine treatment on top of the standard modern medicine treatment. This practice was endorsed and encouraged by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and some details of the herbal treatment were recommended. A review of the publications during and after the SARS crisis enabled us to get an objective view of the true value of the adjuvant therapy using Chinese medicinal herbs. Of the 130 articles searched, 90 were of reasonable quality and contained sufficient information for the enlightenment of the situation. These were reviewed. The results revealed positive but inconclusive indications about the efficacy of the combined treatments using Chinese medicine as an adjuvant. Positive effects using adjuvant herbal therapy included better control of fever, quicker clearance of chest infection, lesser consumption of steroids and other symptoms relief. In a few reports, some evidences of immunological boosterings were also found. More caution is required on the allegation about the efficacy of herbal medicine for the treatment or prevention of viral infection affecting the respiratory tract, while more clinical studies are indicated.

Western medicine is routinely used in developed nations as well as in Eastern countries, where traditional medicine is frequently used by a selection of patients or family member as a complement to mainstream Western medicine. Chinese medicine plays an important role in the treatment of chronic diseases, especially when Western medicine is not very effective. Many published reports have shown that Chinese medicine could also be successfully used in the management of acute and critical illnesses. Chinese medicine has a holistic view of the human body, and emphasizes individualization based on body balance and mind–body interaction and employs herbal medicines and acupuncture. This review paper gives a brief overview of Chinese medicine theory and therapeutic modality and then addresses the application of Chinese medicine in the treatment of acute and critical medical conditions, including epidemics. Using this ancient therapy as a complementary medicine, the management of serious medical conditions, such as SARS, acute heart diseases, and ischemic cerebral stroke, are presented. In order to promote more widespread application of Chinese medicine, well-designed controlled clinical trials are urgently needed to prove its safety and effectiveness.

The spreading of SARS will destruct the initial network structure to a new phase, and in turn the spreading process will be weakened effectively and finally halted by this evolution of network structure. This mechanism is called immunity of contact network in this paper. What we can do is to accelerate effectively this process only.

This paper proposes to model protein regulation networks associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) for early prediction of SARS. In the approach, specific to a patient group, a regulatory network is simulated using a fully-connected neural network and is optimized towards minimizing a novel energy function that is defined as a measure of disagreement between the input and output of the network. The nonlinear version of the network is achieved by applying a sigmoid function. Experimental results show that the proposed approaches can capture regulatory patterns associated with SARS and efficiently implement early prediction of SARS.

We develop simple models for the global spread of infectious diseases, emphasizing human mobility via air travel and the variation of public health infrastructure from region to region. We derive formulas relating the total and peak number of infections in two countries to the rate of travel between them and their respective epidemiological parameters.

SARS Strikes.

Another Emerging Disease in Asia.

Overview.

Global Update.

Culprit Identified?

Economic and Social Impact.

Preventive Measures for General Public.

Genetic Codes.

Detection Kits.

WHO Network.

Traditional Chinese Medicine Remedy for SARS.

SARS Virus Mutating Into At Least Two Forms.

The Resilient SARS Bug.

Singapore Team Announces New Findings on SARS Virus.

Australia Commences Drought Resistant Rice Research.

International Congress of Genetics in Australia.

Unidentified Worm-Like Cysts Found in Brain Stem.

China Sets Up Sperm Banks.

New Development of CAS.

Voyager Dayang Yihao Sets Sail for Oceanic Exploration.

Indian Government to Fight Spurious Drugs.

GEAC Blocks Commercial Bt Cotton.

Development of New Drugs Hampers the Production of Old Ones.

Japanese Government to Provide Financial Aid for Fertility Treatment.

SARS May Incur US$3 Billion Exports Loss.

Final Tests Confirm a New Coronavirus as the SARS Virus.

AIDS Pioneer to Work on Anti-SARS Drug.

An Brief Insight into the Life of the Top AIDS Fighter.

Clinical Features of Index Patient and Initial Contacts.

Common Cold Drug May Be the Answer to SARS Cure.

Traditional Chinese Medicine Effective against SARS.

Dahlia May Be Useful for Treating SARS.