The World Health Organization (WHO)announced on Wednesday that a
new pathogen, a member of the coronavirus family never seen before
in humans, is the cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome
(SARS).
The successful identification of the coronavirus means that
scientists can now confidently turn to other SARS challenges, said
David Heymann, executive director of WHO Communicable Diseases
program.
"Now we can move away from methods like isolation and quarantines
and move aggressively toward modern intervention strategies
including specific treatments and eventually vaccination. With the
establishment of the causative agent, we area crucial step closer,"
Heymann told a news briefing.
The speed at which this virus was identified is the result of the
close international collaboration of 13 laboratories from 10
countries, said the WHO.
"Today, the collaboration continues as top laboratory researchers
have come to WHO to design the next steps, a strategy for
transforming these basic research discoveries into diagnostic tools
which will help us to successfully control this disease," said
Heymann.
This collaboration has brought together leading scientific
expertise, and was established after WHO issued a global alert on
SARS on March 12. The priority has been to find the cause and to
develop diagnostic tests.
While many lines of evidence have found strong associations between
this virus and the disease over the last weeks, final confirmation
came Wednesday, said the WHO.
Dr. Albert Osterhaus, director of virology at Erasmus Medical
Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, said: "Today, the first part
of the mission of our network has been fulfilled." The new
coronavirus has been named by WHO and member laboratories as "SARS
virus," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency April 17, 2003)
