The salient points from the latest World Health Organization (WHO) Update on SARS are as follows:

Update on China’s situation

On March 26, 2003, Chinese authorities officially reported a total of 792 cases and 31 deaths in an outbreak of atypical pneumonia that began in southern China, in Guangdong Province on 16 November 2002.  A WHO team of five international experts reviewed the case definition used in the reporting cases of atypical pneumonia in the Guangdong Province and compared it with the WHO definition used to identify probable cases of SARS.  They concluded that the two definitions are compatible.

Update cases and deaths world-wide

The new data from China therefore bring the total number of reported probable cases worldwide, dating back to November 16, to 1323 cases and 49 deaths.  When the data from China are excluded, figures on March 26 represent an increase of 41 cases, largely concentrated in Hong Kong, and one death, in Singapore compared to March 25.  [Interestingly, it’s noteworthy that the overall case fatality rate (CFR) still remains of a similar magnitude than the one we indicated at the time of our previous CAREC alert, i.e. 3.7%].

Progress towards identification of the virus

Research is increasingly focusing on the Coronavirus family, though viruses from the Paramyxovirus and other families are also being considered as scientists cast the widest possible net in their search for the cause of SARS.  Evidence is strongly pointing to a new virus, or possibly two new viruses, that have not previously been known to infect humans or cause severe disease.  Hypotheses include a virus known to cause disease in an animal host that has jumped the species barrier to infect humans, or a known human virus that has mutated to acquire properties that are causing much more severe disease in humans. It is increasingly certain, however, that SARS is a serious new disease caused by a newly recognized pathogen

Full details are available on the WHO web site http://www.who.int/csr/sars/en