“Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a contagious and sometimes fatal respiratory illness. severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) first appeared in China in November 2002. Within a few months, SARS spread worldwide, carried by unsuspecting travelers.
SARS showed how quickly infection can spread in a highly mobile and interconnected world. On the other hand, a collaborative international effort allowed health experts to quickly contain the spread of the disease.
SARS is caused by a strain of coronavirus, the same family of viruses that causes the common cold.
Coronaviruses can, however, cause severe disease in animals, and that’s why scientists suspected that the SARS virus might have crossed from animals to humans. It now seems likely that that the virus evolved from one or more animal viruses into a new strain.”
MAYO Clinic (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/sars/symptoms-causes/syc-20351765)