BMI Research Accomplishments on SARS virus receive international attention
Saturday 03/01/2008
BMI's research accomplishments on the SARS virus and its origins have been mentioned in several international news media outlets.
At least 3 stories and one editorial have been published in the South China Morning Post over the past week. The research has also been covered in a variety of media in Canada where, like in Asia, SARS had a large impact on individuals and the regional economy.
Dan Janies and his colleagues, Boyan Alexandrov, Farhat Habib, Andrew Hill and Diego Pol, have made the case, which is gaining acceptance that there remain undiscovered SARS-like viruses with novel animal hosts in the wild. Thus five years after the SARS outbreak it is important to continue surveys and plan for future epidemics of SARS, Avian Influenza, or yet to be discovered pathogens.
Below is a sample of one of the first articles to be published, along
with a link:
The following courtesy of CBC News:
Civet cats got a bad rap as the animals that spread SARS to humans, U.S.
researchers said Tuesday.
Chinese scientists fingered the civet cat as the SARS agent, but bats
are the most likely reason that severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)
spread to people, Ohio State University scientists said.
SARS killed over 900 people in 2003, including 44 in Canada. Based on
studies of the genome of the virus that caused SARS, the real story is
that civets were not the animal reservoir of SARS," Ohio State
biomedical informatics professor Daniel Janies said in a release.
Read the entire article by clicking here.
As of 5/2/2008 BMI's research has been recognized in several other publications:
An influential business magazine in China
http://www.caijing.com.cn/econout/environ/2008-04-12/56437.shtml
and
The Lancet Infectious Diseases, "Global hot spots for emerging infectious diseases"
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/section?issue_key=S1473-3099(08)X7003-3§ion=Newsdesk