SARS: Solving The Mystery

The United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, believes it has identified the virus that causes SARS.

They've concluded it's a new coronavirus, a different strain than the one that causes the common cold. Nineteen patients from six countries were found to have either direct or indirect links to the outbreaks in Hong Kong or the Guangdong province in mainland China. A SARS patient in Canada also has this coronavirus, identified by its identical genetic sequences.

The disease causes lung damage similar that of measles or respiratory syncytial virus, but not other coronaviruses. The immune system may be overcompensating, killing healthy cells in addition to microbes. The CDC is now using DNA sequencing to take the virus apart, to determine where it originated. As this virus is new to humans, the current evidence points to animals; it mutated to make the jump to human beings. That it first broke out in mainland China, where people are often near animals, supports this theory.

Scientists now want to concentrate on developing a test that will allow doctors to immediately determine if a patient has SARS.

A proposal is on the table to name the new virus after Dr. Carlo Urbani, the doctor who died of the disease after treating one of the first infected patients in Vietnam. The suggested name is Urbani SARS-associated coronavirus.

Quite a mouthful; I wouldn't be surprised if it is turned into another acronym: USAC.

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