THE unprecedented global research effort into SARS is paying off, with a spate of new discoveries. While not all are reassuring, some may help to improve treatments.
It turns out that the body’s immune response is to blame for SARS deaths, as it is in some other diseases. Ten days after the illness starts, antibody levels shoot up and levels of the coronavirus plummet, Malik Peiris of Hong Kong University has found. Then damage also starts showing up all over the lung.
This suggests that the damage is caused by an overstimulated immune system rather than uncontrolled replication of the…
