Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome -- or SARS -- is a mysterious virus that swept across parts of Asia and the Far East, and moved worldwide. It is thought that the virus originated in the Guangdong province in southern China, with neighbouring Hong Kong being one of the main centers of the outbreak.. The spread of the disease prompted Singapore and Hong Kong and parts of Canada to close certain public places and invoke a quarantine law affecting people thought to have had close contact with others who were infected with the disease.

The disease apparently first occurred in November 2002, in Foshan, of the Guangdong province, China and subsequently spread to 30 other countries on five continents, and affected the economies of China, Hong Kong, and Toronto, where cases were the highest. Taiwan and Singapore were also drastically affected. The rapid international spreads of the 2002/03 outbreaks were partly facilitated by air travel.

Outbreak history

-	November 2002: First case reported in China
-	Feb 2003: 305 cases reported in China with 5 deaths
-	March 2003: Cases reported in Hong Kong, Hanoi, Singapore, Toronto and China
-	May 2003. More than 200 new cases were reported daily. By July 11, 2003 there were 8,437 total patients and 813 of them had died.
-	SARS cases were identified in 29 countries, though in most countries, cases were imported. The only areas that experienced local transmission of SARS were mainland China; Beijing; Hong Kong; Taiwan; Hanoi, Vietnam; Toronto, Canada; and Singapore.
-	April 2004, SARS was confirmed in 9 patients in China. One died
-	The global outbreak had been contained by July 2003, but SARS has since reappeared in isolated incidents related to laboratory accidents. The first occurred in Singapore in September 2003, when a researcher contracted SARS from his laboratory. The second case was reported in Taiwan in December 2003. Again, a research worker who was handling the SARS virus became infected

For more information:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/sars/