Published online 10 May 2004 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news040503-13

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Could you catch the disease from a handshake?

SARS residing in sweat glands could be spread from a simple touch. © Corbis

SARS might be spread by perspiration, according to a new study of the lethal virus. But most experts believe that existing measures are still sufficient to control it.

Researchers mapped the SARS coronavirus in the tissues of four patients killed by the respiratory disease in China last year. Besides the lungs and gut, where SARS is known to cause infection, they found the virus in a range of organs including the kidneys, which make urine, and the sweat glands.

Researchers already know that SARS can disperse through faeces and droplets from coughs. But these results suggest that a simple touch could also spread the disease, says team leader Shibo Jiang at the New York Blood Center. To prevent this, he suggests that additional protective measures should be taken, such as requiring patients to wear gloves and gowns.

However Simon Mardel, who studies the clinical management of SARS at the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland, points out that even if there is some virus in sweat, existing infection control measures already appear to curb its spread. Healthcare workers are currently advised to wear masks and carry out frequent handwashing.

The majority of people who have picked up SARS have had close and extended contact with patients, says Mardel. The idea that SARS could spread through a handshake "doesn't really fit with what we know".

Lab search continues

Chinese and WHO investigators are continuing to explore how two laboratory workers were infected with SARS last month; the workers passed the disease on to another seven contacts. Both had worked at the National Institute of Virology, part of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, China, where the SARS virus was studied.

Neither one of the two researchers is known to have worked with the live virus, the WHO reported this week. The investigative team have taken samples from the institute, but have not yet discovered how the workers came into contact with the virus.