Taiwan's health authorities yesterday praised US progress on identifying the mystery virus that causes an atypical type of pneumonia afflicting hundreds of people in Asia.
Five people in Taiwan are thought to have the disease, which the World Health Organization is calling "severe acute respiratory syndrome" (SARS).
"The US finding is a useful reference for Taiwan's scientists and health authorities to determine the virus that has caused the SARS cases in Taiwan," Chen Tsai-ching (
"The discovery [that the virus is from] the coronavirus group is encouraging news to the whole world," Chen said.
Though health scientists initially suggested that symptoms caused by coronavirus would not lead to SARS, Chen said yesterday that scientists and the health authorities did not rule out the possibility that a genetic mutation would allow coronavirus to lead to SARS.
"Medical records indicated that patients infected with coronavirus would usually have an upper respiratory tract infection, which would include such things as a runny nose, coughing, sore throat, weakness and sometimes fever, which is less frequently seen," Chen said.
"But coronavirus rarely leads to lower respiratory tract infection such as SARS."
Chen said that further genetic coding for the coronavirus was needed to prove if a mutation had taken place.
As for the paramyxovirus, which Hong Kong scientists had previously indicated was the probable cause of the SARS outbreak, Chen said the Center for Disease Control would continue to investigate the possibility.
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