What Happened To SARS?
A disease which held the headlines of every major news vehicle only a few months ago has now faded to the back pages only 7 months after the first reported case in Feb. 2003. The severe pneumonia first detected in China and then Vietnam had a striking hallmark: it was highly contagious to health care workers and tested negative for all previously known causes of respiratory disease. Newly named SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), this disease quickly spread to 30 countries in nearly as many days claiming more than 800 lives and terrifying millions of others. This disease crippled tourism and airports in several countries and caused many other rippling effects from school closures to quarantines and various forms of discrimination. Now, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), SARS appears to have peaked and is now declining. The question remains as to whether this represents true containment of the virus or whether this is simply a seasonal effect as seen with
