When the next outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) will emerge is anyone's guess. But three years after first identifying the disease (in November 2002), researchers are still trying to determine the most effective SARS assays, while also working to develop the next generation of tests. "We're still in the process of evaluating the tests," says James Mahony of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, who has coauthored a series of papers comparing different SARS assays. "We're starting to get a feel for how they perform."
Health officials initially diagnosed the illness based on symptoms and travel history. By May 2003, researchers had identified a novel coronavirus as the disease's probable culprit, and two independent groups had sequenced it. In the process they developed two types of rapid diagnostic assay for the virus, a serologic test (which tests for the presence of anti-SARS antibodies in the patient's blood) and a ...
