scary SARS article

[Guest guest]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64351-2003Apr20.html

........................One of the key determinants is the unresolved

question of exactly how the SARS virus spreads.

While the primary mode is believed to be close personal contact, the virus

did sweep rapidly through an apartment tower and hotel in Hong Kong in ways

that remain unclear.

" There are enough of these outliers to tell us that we don't know what the

full potential is, " Fauci said. " There is something unusual and beyond the

scope of face-to-face contact. "

During the weekend, the WHO said SARS appears to have been more severe in

the Hong Kong apartment building outbreak than elsewhere and sickened more

younger, otherwise healthy people. That raises fears the virus may have

mutated into an even more dangerous form, the WHO said.

Another key unknown is whether the disease can be spread when people have no

symptoms.