X-Message-Number: 21422 From: "Mark Plus" <> Subject: Toronto Star: Researchers may have cornered mystery virus Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2003 17:24:29 -0800 http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?GXHC_gx_session_id_=1b7e23d937fde40f&pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=1035779483106&call_pageid=968332188492 Mar. 18, 2003. 05:52 PM Researchers may have cornered mystery virus Two Torontonians have died from respiratory ailment known as SARS HELEN BRANSWELL CANADIAN PRESS A potential source of the mystery illness that has been worrying public health officials around the globe may have been identified. Scientists in Germany and possibly Hong Kong appear to have isolated what looks like a paramyxovirus, a member of a large family of viruses that cause ailments ranging from measles and mumps to many respiratory conditions. While it's too early to say if this is the culprit responsible for sudden acute respiratory syndrome or SARS, infectious disease experts in Canada say it is plausible this is the pathogen scientists around the world have been desperately seeking. "It's completely believable," said Dr. Brian Ward, an infectious disease specialist at McGill University in Montreal. "It's pretty compelling." Researchers at the Institute for Medical Virology at Germany's Frankfurt University reported today they had seen something resembling a paramyxovirus in samples taken from two SARS patients there. Such a finding would be considered interesting and important, but not solid proof. Other teams examining specimens from other patients would also have to find the same virus before the scientific community could begin to believe that the German researchers had indeed discovered the cause of the mysterious ailment. There was an unconfirmed report today that a team from Hong Kong has also seen what looked like a paramyxovirus in specimens from SARS patients. Microbiologists at a Toronto hospital treating two of Canada's 11 probable and suspected cases of SARS received a report from a colleague in Hong Kong in which he said he had identified what appeared to be paramyxovirus particles in some SARS specimens. The virologist, from the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong, was not immediately available to comment. But Dr. Andrew Simor, who read the report, said the second finding strengthens the case that the pathogen involved is a paramyxovirus. "It makes it seem like it might be more likely," said Simor, head of microbiology at Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre. "It's still early. But it's another piece of evidence that may be helpful." Laboratories around the world have been scrambling to try to discover what is causing the disease the World Health Organization has called a worldwide health threat. Since early March, at least 219 people in countries around the world have fallen ill with a mysterious pneumonia, the cause of which could not be pinpointed. Four people have died, including two in Canada. An earlier outbreak in the Chinese province of Guangdong has since come to light. That outbreak, which began in late November and peaked in mid-February, sickened about 300 people and killed five. _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=21422