China: SARS May Be Linked to Chlamydia-Like Agent

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's center for disease control said on Friday it suspects a chlamydia-like agent caused an outbreak of a flu-like virus that has killed 82 people and infected over 2,400 worldwide.
"We're 80 percent sure," Hong Tao, a researcher with the Institute of Virology under the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told a news conference.

The center studied samples of victims' lungs, livers, kidneys and other organs which showed a chlamydia-like agent appeared to have caused the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Hong said.

In Geneva, a spokesman for the World Health Organization said the U.N. agency was "99 percent" certain SARS was caused by a previously unknown strain belonging to the coronavirus family, a major cause of the common cold.

However, until it was absolutely certain, the possibility that some other virus, including chlamydia, also played a role could not be ruled out.

Hong told the Beijing news conference the agent most likely came from animals, but it was not known what kind.

SARS has killed 46 people and infected 1,191 in China since November when it first surfaced in the southern province of Guangdong, and then went on to spread around the globe in March. (Reporting by Dai Shasha in Beijing, Richard Waddington in Geneva)