The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Wednesday that a new pathogen -- a member of the corona virus family never before seen in humans -- is the cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
The successful identification of the corona virus means scientists can now confidently turn to other SARS challenges.
Various laboratories are continuing work to unravel the genetic information of the SARS virus and compare the sequences obtained from viruses in different parts of the world.
"Now we can move away from methods like isolation and quarantines and move aggressively towards modern intervention strategies including specific treatments and eventually vaccination. With the establishment of the causative agent, we are a crucial step closer," said Dr David Heymann, Executive Director of WHO Communicable Diseases programs.
The new corona virus has been named by WHO and member laboratories as "SARS virus," said Dr Albert Osterhaus, Director of Virology at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam. Erasmus completed the work to definitely prove that the new corona virus causes SARS.
In the meantime, a new genetic sequencing of the SARS virus proved conclusively that it came from animals, according to University of Hong Kong researchers. They believe -- but have not proven -- the virus mutated into a more dangerous form that infected about 300 people in hard-hit Amoy Gardens.
"This virus did not originally exist in humans, it definitely comes from animals," said Yuen Kwok-yung, a microbiologist at the University of Hong Kong.
But scientists from the university said more research is needed before they can hope to know which animal species had spread SARS to humans.
(China Daily April 17, 2003)
