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Sars virus mutated into more infectious form: Study
Washington, Jan 30: The Sars virus fine-tuned itself to become more infectious as last year`s epidemic spread across China, researchers reported.
Washington, Jan 30: The Sars virus fine-tuned itself to become more infectious as last year's epidemic spread across China, researchers reported.
Early patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome had a form genetically very similar to that seen in civets, while the last patients in the epidemic had a slightly mutated form, the researchers said yesterday.
''What we see is the virus fine-tuning itself to enhance its access to a new host - humans,'' Chung-I Wu, a professor and chairman of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago, said in a statement.
''This is a disturbing process to watch, as the virus improves itself under selective pressure, learning to spread from person to person, then sticking with the version that is most effective.''
This may explain why the virus became more infectious with time, Wu said.
The finding, published in the journal science, supports the idea the virus leapt to people from animals and also should allow experts to understand the virus better.
Sars infected more than 8,000 people last winter and killed nearly 800. This year, two people have been confirmed to have been infected with Sars and a third is considered a probable case, all in China.
The virus that causes the disease, marked by severe pneumonia, is a never-before-seen type of Coronavirus. Coronaviruses cause the common cold in people and a range of infections in animals.
Bureau Report
''What we see is the virus fine-tuning itself to enhance its access to a new host - humans,'' Chung-I Wu, a professor and chairman of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago, said in a statement.
''This is a disturbing process to watch, as the virus improves itself under selective pressure, learning to spread from person to person, then sticking with the version that is most effective.''
This may explain why the virus became more infectious with time, Wu said.
The finding, published in the journal science, supports the idea the virus leapt to people from animals and also should allow experts to understand the virus better.
Sars infected more than 8,000 people last winter and killed nearly 800. This year, two people have been confirmed to have been infected with Sars and a third is considered a probable case, all in China.
The virus that causes the disease, marked by severe pneumonia, is a never-before-seen type of Coronavirus. Coronaviruses cause the common cold in people and a range of infections in animals.
Bureau Report