SARS impossible to contain, says WHO

A MYSTERY respiratory virus which has claimed more than 90 lives may be carried by people without symptoms, making it impossible to contain.

The warning has come from the World Health Organisation's (WHO) infectious diseases chief, Dr David Heymann, who said that finding a treatment or vaccine for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) would take a long time.

"If there are people who have the virus and don't show symptoms, we are lost, because that would mean it had spread throughout the world, as it is easily contracted.