Who Experts Arrive At Site In China Of First And Largest Sars Outbreak
Seeking to find the source of a deadly new respiratory disease, United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) experts
arrived in Guangdong Province, China, today and immediately started work at the site of the first and largest outbreak
of the illness, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
With the cumulative total SARS reaching 2270 cases and 79 deaths worldwide, the <"http://www.who.int/csr/sars/en/">WHO team met with senior provincial health officials and held discussions with
health workers at all levels on patterns of transmission, clinical profiles and the suspected causative agent. The
health workers, who include epidemiologists and clinicians treating SARS patients, have first-hand knowledge of the
outbreak.
The world's first recognized case of SARS occurred in Guangdong on 16 November. Since then, Chinese authorities have
reported a cumulative total of 1,153 cases and 40 deaths in the province up to the end of March, making the area the
most seriously affected by SARS to date.
Expectations are high that important clues will emerge concerning the origins of SARS, which is thought to be caused by
a new virus in the coronavirus family, WHO said. The exact identity of the virus has proved elusive. Scientists, who
confer daily in teleconferences organized by WHO, currently speculate that the SARS virus either jumped to humans from
an animal species or mutated into a more virulent form.