Monkey experiments provide confirmation that a novel coronavirus is the cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)

The World Health Organization (WHO) has formally announced that a member of the coronavirus family never before seen in humans, named by WHO and its SARS laboratory network as the SARS virus, is the cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) (1). An expert meeting in Geneva, attended by representatives from the SARS laboratory network, reviewed the data available on SARS, and considered the imminent strategy for development of a diagnostic test for SARS.