SARS virus now weaker — WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday that the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus is getting weaker based on the clinical observation of experts on the five people who contracted the disease since September last year.

WHO country representative Dr. Jean Marc Olive said yesterday that the SARS virus was observed to have weakened because of mutation.

"The virus adjusts to the environment and mutates all the time. It can go both ways. It’s good news that the new SARS has become weaker. The virus mutated to a weaker one and not to a more aggressive one," he noted in a press briefing.

Since SARS resurfaced in September last year, it had infected one person in Taiwan, one in Singapore and three in China.

But when the WHO declared the world SARS-free in July 2003, the disease had infected over 8,000 people and killed around 800. The disease first broke out in Guangdong, China in Nov. 2001.

SARS is caused by a previously unrecognized form of corona virus which commonly caused pneumonia.

According to Olive, the five SARS cases were observed to have manifested fever, cough and pneumonia "which are much less severe than the previous SARS cases."

It’s less infectious and there’s a lower chance of mortality. This needs again to be scientifically corroborated and studied and I’m sure that the people are doing that," he added.