As the death toll of one of the worst global virus scares of the last 25 years continues to rise, this documentary asks where SARS came from, what's coming next and if the global panic is justified.
As the death toll of one of the worst global virus scares of the last 25 years continues to rise, this documentary asks where SARS came from, what's coming next and if the global panic is justified. More than 100 people have died, there are thousands of victims in quarantine worldwide and hospitals have been closed. This programme speaks to the World Health Organisation scientists striving to isolate the virus and find a cure. It also examines how this new virus was transmitted from birds to their peasant farmer owners in Guangdong Province then spread like wildfire, being taken to Hong Kong by an unwitting professor of virology before spreading by air travel to destinations as far afield as Hanoi and Toronto initially and then the UK. Experts believe that SARS is just the latest in a long line of new diseases such as Aids, BSE and Ebola that the world will have to learn to contain in the future.
