Unprecedented collaboration leads to identification of SARS virus in record time
The identification of the pathogen responsible for the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) was achieved in record time due to unprecedented scientific collaboration, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared. The WHO announced on 17 April that a member of the coronavirus family, never before seen in humans, is the cause of SARS. The identification of this new pathogen was the result of collaboration between 13 laboratories from 10 countries, including France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. 'The pace of SARS research has been astounding,' said WHO scientists David Heymann. 'Because of an extraordinary collaboration among laboratories from countries around the world, we now know with certainty what causes SARS.' The identification of the coronavirus, named 'SARS virus' by the WHO, means that scientists can now work on developing diagnostic tools to control the disease. Experts will gather at the WHO during the next few days in order to map out future work on SARS. 'The people in this network have put aside profit and prestige to work together to find the cause of this new disease and to find new ways of fighting it,' said Klaus Stöhr, WHO virologist and coordinator of the collaborative research network. 'In this globalised world, such collaboration is the only way forward in tackling emerging diseases.' The network is dedicating their detection of the SARS virus to Dr Carlo Urbani, the WHO scientist who first alerted the world to the existence of SARS, and who died from the disease on 29 March 2003.
Countries
Germany, France, Netherlands, United Kingdom