There is increasing concern that efforts to contain the SARS pneumonia virus will prove futile. Yet it might just have been nipped in the bud if effective action had been taken early on. The delay highlights the problem of countries trying to suppress news of emerging diseases for fear of the economic impact, and the lack of clout international health authorities have to intervene to prevent an outbreak turning into an epidemic. Severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, appears to have started in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong in November last year. In March, Liu Jianlun, a 64-year-old medical professor who had been helping to fight the outbreak, went to Hong Kong for a wedding. When he developed a temperature shortly after arrival, he went straight to the Princess Margaret Hospital and asked to be put in isolation.
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