New common cold virus may cause SARS

A new and dangerous type of common cold virus has been named as the chief suspect behind the deadly Sars infection that has caused 100 deaths.

Scientists in Hong Kong found strong evidence that a new kind of human coronavirus is the main cause of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

Coronaviruses are thought to be the second most common cause of cold symptoms after rhinoviruses.

They also infect a wide range of domestic animals, including dogs and cats. One theory is that the human virus spread from animals.

Normally in humans coronaviruses produce mild symptoms such as sore throats, coughs, sneezing and headaches.

But the new coronavirus appears to be in a different league, producing a severe pneumonia-like illness, a collapse of lung function, and death.

Five victims of Sars, which originated in China, are being treated in hospital in Britain.

Health officials in Hong Kong yesterday said that a 78-year-old woman had become the 100th person in the world to die of the disease.

The new scientific findings were published today on the website of The Lancet medical journal.

Coronavirus had already been suspected of involvement in Sars, but the new evidence makes the link much stronger. Professor Malik Peiris, from the University of Hong Kong, and colleagues studied 50 patients with Sars from five separate outbreak clusters.

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