UNCERTAINTY surrounds the identity of the virus responsible for the “super-pneumonia” cases around the world, with two candidates emerging. But that has not prevented a basic test for the disease being developed.
Malik Peiris’s team at the University of Hong Kong has managed to grow a virus isolated from a patient with “severe acute respiratory syndrome” or SARS. It looks like a coronavirus, a family that includes some viruses that cause colds. The Centers for Disease Control in the US has also identified a previously unrecognised virus from the same family in SARS patients.
But earlier this week, labs in…
