How long is a person with SARS infectious?
A. Information to date suggests that people are most likely to be infectious when they have symptoms, such as fever or cough. It is not known if a person is infectious before symptoms show up. How long, or even whether, a person is infectious after symptoms have cleared up is also not known. But studies by Hong Kong researchers showed the SARS virus can survive for at least 24 hours on a surface coughed on or touched by a victim, longer than the three hours some had previously thought.
