SARS virus isolated in first step to vaccine

SCIENTISTS have confirmed the identity of the virus that causes the lethal new disease known as severe acute respiratory syndrome, the World Health Organisation said yesterday, marking an important step toward developing new drugs to combat the disease.

In experiments conducted at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Netherlands, scientists infected monkeys with the coronavirus suspected of causing 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 3,293 people ill in 22 countries.