SARS molecular epidemiology: a Chinese fairy tale of controlling an emerging zoonotic disease in the genomics era.

ABSTRACT: Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was the first natural disaster that challenged the Chinese people at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It was caused by a novel animal coronavirus, never recognized or characterized before. This SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) exploited opportunities provided by 'wet markets' in southern China to adapt to the palm civet and human. Under the positive selection pressure of human host, certain mutated lineages of the virus became readily transmissible between humans and thus caused the epidemic of 2002-2003. This review will provide first-hand information, particularly from Guangdong, China, about the initial epidemiology, the identification of the aetiological agent of the disease, the molecular evolution study of the virus, the finding of SARS-l

SUBMITTER: Zhao GP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2435571 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature