The containment of the 2003 SARS outbreak is considered one of the biggest public health victories in recent years. Stopping the new coronavirus, known as COVID-19, will probably be much harder.
But eight months after SARS began circulating, it was contained. The virus died out.
But limiting the current outbreak with these tried-and-true public health strategies has proved harder now because of the sheer number of cases, Gostin said. Those risks are even greater now. Chinese people travel domestically and internationally at a much higher rate now than in 2003, which makes containment “that much more difficult,” Gostin said.and announced Friday that the virus reached a fifth continent, Africa, after a case was detected in Egypt. Any dips in weekly case numbers should not be interpreted as signs of abatement, officials say.
Scientists will probably soon find out. SARS and COVID-19 are like cousins, sharing 70% of their genetic material. Both are coronaviruses, a family of viruses that before 2003 had been known to cause only the common cold in humans.
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