At the All-China Academic Seminar on Hospital Infection held by Chinese Preventive Medicine Association in Wuhan, a report was delivered by Professor Wang Nengping from the Southern Hospital of the First Military Medical University on 9 urgent problems facing the prevention and control of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

Wang said that since the global outbreak of SARS, relevant studies in aspects of clinical medicine, epidemiology, pathology and etiology have all made headway. However, there still remain a series of problems to be elucidated in terms of infectious disease control. They are:

1. Why were there cases light and serious in the SARS epidemic? In other words, what's the special characteristic of the disease chart of SARS virus? Were there any sub-clinical cases, cases of malignant and benign and potential infections? If there were, what was their respective proportion and degree of significance for them to be sources of infection? For patients under immunity control, is there an extension of the infection period?

2. Are there any chronic carriers of viruses? If there were, how did they come into being? What kind of role will they play in the possible prevalence of the epidemic in future?

3. Are there any animal sources of infection? Is SARS a zoonosis?

4. Are there any virus-variations in a short term? Is so, what's its impact on specific diagnosis, anti-virus treatment and the research on vaccine? Are the anti-bodies detected so far protective? How long can they last? If formerly infected are exposed to SARS virus again, can they be free from being infected? Will there be an increase of antibody level in them? How to evaluate the application value of blood serum during the recovery period?

5. Is there any aerosol dissemination? Is there any possible dissemination through blood? Do flies and cockroaches (coronary virus has been detected in both of them) play a part in the dissemination?

6. Why did children patients account for a lower proportion, and why were they lightly infected?

7. So little has been known about the biological characteristics of the SARS, such as its replication and transcription mechanism, gene application and mechanism.

8. Can SARS stay long in a certain area, or create repeated infection cases there? Is there a seasonal ebb and flow of SARS, as other respiratory diseases?

9. Why were there super spreaders?

(People’s Daily October 2, 2003)