An outbreak of a mild respiratory disease in two nursing homes near Vancouver, in Canada, scientists and experts puzzled and worried public health. Tests suggest that a very similar to the agent that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is involved, but symptoms of SARS does not look full. The results suggest that the SARS coronavirus can cause mild disease that has not been known.
The health authorities in the province of British Columbia reported that 94 residents and 49 employees at a nursing home in Surrey have fallen ill since July 1. Most had mild, coldlike symptoms, although 11 elderly patients developed pneumonia and six died of pneumonia, often accompanied by other diseases. Nine cases occurred in a second home close
In studies at Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, nine of the 19 patients had traces of the RNA of the SARS coronavirus. four of seven patients also had antibodies against the virus. Researchers still have sequenced the genome of the virus involved in the disease, but the 750 base pairs sequenced so far closely resemble extracts in the genome of the SARS coronavirus, David Patrick of the Center for Disease Control BC said yesterday in an announcement on ProMED, a list of e-mail for emerging infectious diseases
So far, the SARS virus. - The transmission of the World Health Organization (WHO) was arrested around 5 July - has not been known to cause mild disease. In its report, Patrick offered three possible explanations: Perhaps the virus was originally a benign disease unnoticed throughout; a major mutation may have rendered the SARS virus less aggressive; or the virus may be a close relative of SARS.
The results are potentially worrisome, says virologist Albert Osterhaus of Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, "but right now we just do not have enough data to say anything useful ". But Henry Niman, a Harvard researcher, says the results suggest that the real virus SARS is still circulating in Canada and could mutate back into the deadliest form.
The WHO sent a virologist to Winnipeg to monitor studies- -but he does not judge a health emergency because the disease is so mild. "Right now, this is just a laboratory abnormality," said spokesman Dick Thompson of the WHO. Meanwhile, Canadian authorities have isolated patients and are looking for people who might have come into contact with them.
Related Sites
More information about the epidemic
WHO SARS information
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