THE medical world has been warning for more than a decade that deadly new infections will emerge from humanity’s current mix of crowded cities, intensive livestock and globalised travel and trade. The drama unfolding in the wake of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) proves the point. In the past such an infection might have emerged in China and stayed there. Now it turns up in Canada, Germany and elsewhere within weeks (see “Identity of killer pneumonia eludes experts as it attacks more victims”).
Fortunately, the pathogen – whatever it turns out to be – seems not to be unduly…
