非典型肺炎特輯 SARS



B.C. LAB CRACKS SUSPECTED SARS CODE


B.C. LAB CRACKS SUSPECTED SARS CODE
WebPosted Sun Apr 13 10:47:16 2003

VANCOUVER--Scientists at a Canadian research centre say they've mapped
the genomic sequence of the virus believed to cause SARS, a move that
could take the world a step closer to a reliable test for the illness.

 Researchers in B.C. abandoned their usual work on cancer to focus on a
sample of a coronavirus from a patient with severe acute respiratory
syndrome.

 Early Saturday morning, they finished work on the project at Michael
Smith Genome Sciences Centre in British Columbia. The team was helped by
the B.C. Centre for Disease Control and Winnipeg's National Microbiology
Laboratory.

 "This is a huge step forward in the fight to control the spread of
SARS," said Dr. Caroline Astell, projects leader at the genome centre.

 The facility's director, Dr. Marco Marra, hopes that the genetic
blueprint will eventually lead to "a reliable and robust diagnostic
test" for the illness.

 "It seemed to us that it would be important for us to bend our talents
towards an identification of the agent responsible for SARS," Marra told
CBC News Saturday. The complete sequence will be posted on the centre's
Web site to help SARS researchers around the world, he said.

 Since the global outbreak of SARS last month, doctors have focused on
the coronavirus as a likely suspect. Many top researchers think the
virus, which normally causes a cold, may have mutated – perhaps as
it moved from animals to people.

 Dr. Donald Low

 Word of the genomic sequence was hailed by the World Health Organization
on the weekend. It was also welcomed by researchers in Toronto, the city
hit hardest by SARS in Canada.

 Dr. Donald Low, director of microbiology at Mount Sinai Hospital, said
the code was mapped with "unprecedented" speed, far more quickly than
many people expected.

 "It's positive in the sense that it really gives us something to help
understand exactly where this thing comes from," Low said in an
interview with CBC News Saturday.

 "More importantly, (it may reveal) why it's been able to do what it's
been able to do – causing disease with such a high mortality rate,
and causing such severe disease in those patients who've come down with
it."

 RELATED: SARS death toll rises to 13 in Ontario

 As of Saturday, 13 people had died of SARS in Canada – all of them
around Toronto. There were a total of 223 probable or suspected cases in
Ontario, and roughly 275 across the country. Globally, about 2,950
people in 19 countries are believed to have contracted SARS, according
to the World Health Organization. At least 119 have died.

資料提供:Irene Law