SARS is caused by a virus from the family coronavirus.
1st discovered in 2003 in southern China, SARS went on to affect more than 8,000 people in more than two dozen countries in North America, South America, Europe and Asia, before it was contained.
no known cases have been reported anywhere since 2004.
in 2003, an outbreak of the SARS virus created global havoc and concern of a potentially lethal pandemic, but in the end, only killed 750 people
the virus spread quickly from person to person in 2003 and had a mortality rate of at least 9%
it had been thought to have originated from bats then to weasel-like mammals known as civets before becoming infective in humans
it is now thought that humans can catch it directly from bats and not from an intermediate host.