Foreign
Desk
| April 17, 2003, Thursday
THE SARS
EPIDEMIC: THE VIRUS; Health Group Certain of
Agent in Respiratory Ailment
By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN (NYT) 1079
words
Late Edition - Final , Section A ,
Page 13 , Column 1
ABSTRACT
- World Health Orgn says animal experiments
prove conclusively that agent causing severe
acute respiratory syndrome is new member of
coronavirus family; says it will be called
SARS virus; discovery of SARS virus and
proof of its role in causing disease come
with astounding speed, after monthlong hunt;
Dr David L Heymann, executive director of
WHO's communicable diseases program,
attributes speed of his agency's success to
willingness of members of network to put
aside usual competitiveness to develop
extraordinary degree of cooperation at time
of public health emergency; urgency is
underscored by explosive nature of SARS
virus; one patient can transmit virus to
infect large numbers of other people,
particularly health care workers (M) Ending
a monthlong hunt for the cause of severe
acute respiratory syndrome, the World Health
Organization said yesterday that animal
experiments had proved conclusively that the
agent was a new member of the coronavirus
family.
''We can now say with all confidence that
the causative agent of SARS is the
coronavirus first detected in Hong Kong on
March 21,'' and it will be called the SARS
virus, Dr. Klaus Stöhr, the scientific
director of W.H.O.'s investigation of the
disease, said in a teleconference with
reporters from Geneva.
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