http://www.cp.org/english/online/full/science/030416/g041602A.html
LONDON (CP) - Scientists have confirmed the identity of the virus that causes the lethal new disease known as severe acute respiratory syndrome, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.
In experiments conducted at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Netherlands, scientists infected monkeys with the coronavirus suspected of causing of SARS and found that the animals developed the same symptoms of the disease that humans do.
The test was a crucial step in verifying the cause of the disease, which so far has killed 161 people worldwide, mostly in China and Hong Kong, and made 3,235 people ill in 22 countries.
As of Tuesday, a total of 296 probable or suspect cases of SARS had been reported in Canada, most in the Toronto region. Eighty-two people have recuperated and been discharged from hospital, while 13 people have died.
As well, health officials in the Philippines are investigating the death of a Filipina nurse who had recently worked in Toronto but who died in her homeland after being hospitalized with pneumonia. "She is considered a suspect SARS case," Philippine Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit said Tuesday.
Scientists have been fairly certain for some time that a new form of coronavirus - first isolated from sick patients on March 27 by the University of Hong Kong - was the cause of SARS.
But they could not say for sure until they had satisfied what is known as the Koch's postulates - four scientific tests that verify whether a bug causes a certain disease.
"The Koch's postulates have been fulfilled, so we can now say for certain that the new coronavirus is the cause of SARS," said Dr. Klaus Stohr, a World Health Organization virologist participating in a Geneva conference.
Researchers at the University of Hong Kong said a new genetic sequencing of the SARS virus proves conclusively that it came from animals.
But, the virus nonetheless is "something that is new to science," university microbiologist Malik Peiris said before the WHO findings were announced.
Asked about the possibility that the virus was man-made, Peiris said there was no chance of that.
"That whole genome is essentially new," he said. "Nature has been the terrorist throwing up this virus."
Researchers at a Singapore government-run institute reportedly are almost ready to begin trials of a test to detect the presence of SARS in a patient's blood before the onset of symptoms.
The University of Hong Kong researchers also said they believe - but have not proven - that the virus mutated into a more dangerous form that infected about 300 people in one hard-hit apartment complex there.
"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.
Last weekend, the Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, part of the B.C. Cancer Agency, became the first research organization in the world to sequence the genome of the coronavirus.
Caroline Astell, projects leader at the Canadian laboratory, said the findings were being sent out to researchers around the world and could initially help develop diagnostic tests.
In future it could help the development of antivirals, "which would
block the replication of this virus and therefore be a treatment for it,"
she said. That is expected to be years away, however.
