TY - JOUR AU - Breiman, Robert F. AU - Evans, Meirion R. AU - Preiser, Wolfgang AU - Maguire, James AU - Schnur, Alan AU - Bekedam, Henk AU - MacKenzie, John S. T1 - Role of China in the Quest to Define and Control Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2003 VL - 9 IS - 9 SP - 1037 SN - 1080-6059 AB - China holds the key to solving many questions crucial to global control of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The disease appears to have originated in Guangdong Province, and the causative agent, SARS coronavirus, is likely to have originated from an animal host, perhaps sold in public markets. Epidemiologic findings, integral to defining an animal-human linkage, may then be confirmed by laboratory studies; once animal host(s) are confirmed, interventions may be needed to prevent further animal-to-human transmission. Community seroprevalence studies may help determine the basis for the decline in disease incidence in Guangdong Province after February 2002. China will also be able to contribute key data about how the causative agent is transmitted and how it is evolving, as well as identifying pivotal factors influencing disease outcome. There must be support for systematically addressing these fundamental questions in China and rapidly disseminating results. KW - SARS KW - Severe acute respiratory syndrome KW - China KW - wildlife KW - animals KW - genetic KW - sequence KW - incidence KW - Seroprevalence KW - transmission KW - super-spreader KW - evolution KW - emergence KW - outcome DO - 10.3201/eid0909.030390 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/9/9/03-0390_article ER - End of Reference