Effectiveness of control measures during the SARS epidemic in Beijing: a comparison of theRtcurve and the epidemic curve

Abstract
One of the areas most affected by SARS was Beijing with 2521 reported cases. We estimate the effective reproductive number R t for the Beijing SARS epidemic, which represents the average number of secondary cases per primary case on each day of the epidemic and is therefore a measure of the underlying transmission dynamics. Our results provide a quantitative assessment of the effectiveness of public health control measures. More generally, our results illustrate how changes in R t will reflect changes in the epidemic curve.