In late February of 2003, there was an argument between a husband and wife. It wasn’t responsible behaviour, she said, to be treating people who were dying from a new disease, when he was the father of three children. The husband’s reply?

“If I can’t work in such situations, what am I here for?”

He was Doctor Carlo Urbani, and he was to die a few days later of the disease he helped identify: SARS.

Biology Badger has the utmost respect for him and his actions, which helped limit the spread of SARS and probably thereby saved many lives.

SARS was a new disease, never encountered before. Like many diseases which are infecting a new group, it was especially dangerous as there was no established immunity. More than just biologically, the newness of the disease was a social risk – without knowing existed, nothing could be done to combat it!

Again like many other newly encountered diseases, SARS was present in animal populations before making the jump to humans. In this case, palm civets, bear-dogs and ferret-badgers in China were the likely hosts – Biology Badger would like to extend an apology on behalf of the ferret-badgers for harbouring this pathogen.

SARS stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. The newness of the disease is reflected by its naming after the symptoms and not the agent that causes it as it was unknown – unlike with Zika or H1N1 flu, and more like another scary disease – AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome). In SARS, R espiratory S yndrome means a condition affecting a persons ability to breathe, S evere indicates the intensity of the problem, and A cute means that the problems come on quickly.

Ultimately, SARS turned out to be very bad for the people infected – one in ten who caught it died.

[An image of the virus that causes SARS, from the Pathogen Profile Library]

At the start of the outbreak, there were quite a few cases cropping up where the disease had originated in China, but internationally, there was no awareness of the illness beyond a few hints of some kind of “flu outbreak”.

Dr Urbani became involved when an American businessman became ill on his flight from China to Hanoi, in Vietnam. He was the infectious disease specialist for the WHO (World Health Organisation) at the office in Hanoi, and was asked to advise when doctors treating the businessman became concerned.

He quickly realised that the infection was not flu, but was something else, and that it represented a real and immediate threat. Thanks to his excellent working relationships with local Vietnamese officials and medical staff, he was able to persuade the Ministry of Health to quarantine suspected patients and screen visitors to the country.

He also alerted the WHO so that other countries around the world could take similar measures and identify SARS patients quickly when they appeared.

On realising he was likely infected himself on a flight to Bangkok, he alerted his colleagues and isolated himself while awaiting transport to hospital, where 3 weeks later, he died of the infection.

In the end, his actions probably saved many lives. SARS was successfully stopped – less than 9000 people caught it worldwide. Dr Carlo Urbani stands out as amazing scientist, communicator and human being – identifying the threat, warning about it, and helping to treat it at personal risk – but we should remember that there were many others who worked to help treat and contain SARS and many of them also lost their lives.

Infectious Diseases will always be a danger; I am very thankful that there are so many people who work so hard to stop them.

[A picture of Doctor Urbani with his family -this and feature image from Emmus online]