![]() The international team got to work in Guangdong, where everything started. Where did the virus come from and how did it get into humans? Shortly after the SARS pandemic was under control, the WHO created a special mission assigned to uncover the natural host of the virus. But the question of the ecology and evolution of the virus still remained unanswered. ![]() Sometime afterwards three independent research papers pointed to coronaviruses as the culprits behind this disease 6– 8. The disease outbreak was officially over by July 2003, thanks to the efficient containment efforts of the WHO and governments around the world. The disease kills about 10% of all infected people and, from February 2002 to July 2003, 8,906 people acquired SARS, leading to over 774 deaths in 29 countries, according to WHO figures. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is caused by the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and starts as an atypical pneumonia, with high fever and mild respiratory symptoms, which quickly evolves into a full-blown pneumonia. ![]() However, in 2002 Guangdong was at the centre of a ghastly event: it became the birth place of the twenty-first century's first global pandemic. Guangdong is one of the largest and wealthiest provinces in China, home of Cantonese cuisine. One of the deadliest, fastest spreading and most impactful zoonotic outbreaks of modern times started with food, in China's culinary capital. ![]()
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