[Judith Anne]

We discussed this here on these SARS threads about a month ago, the number of respirators and hospital beds in major cities...If I remember correctly, we used Chicago as an example...

If 3000 people in Chicago got SARS this winter, and if the current rate of +/- 10% had to be placed on respirators for two weeks more or less (as well as in respiratory [negative airflow room] isolation) that would be 300 people...not to mention all the other patients that need ventilators (respirators) for other illnesses....I don't think there would be enough, truthfully.

I can't remember how many hospital beds Chicago has...does anyone? Maybe I can find out...

[Judith Anne]

Okay, Chicago has around 30,000 hospital beds. They could likely handle 300 serious SARS cases. Not to worry, if you live in Chicago. ;-)

[EternalHope]

It's not how many hospital beds they have. It's how many isolation units, ICU's and respirators.

As I recall, the limiting factor was respirators. Someone looked it up and came up with a number in the low hundreds, total, for the whole city of Chicago.