Causes of SARS

Coronavirus has been confirmed as the disease causing virus by laboratories around the world after the SARS outbreak in 2002.It is a positive strand, enveloped in RNA virus that is found in animals causing enteric or respiratory infections in them. It was later found that palm civets sold as food in the local market in Guangdong, China had SARS coronavirus in them although there were no external manifestations of the same. This is believed to be the origin of the outbreak. Other animals such as raccoon dogs, ferret badgers and Chinese bats were later found to contain the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome virus.