SARS

SARS stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, an acute lung infection caused by a coronavirus that is accompanied by fever, cough, and for many individuals, severe respiratory failure. It was first described in the early 2000s during a coronavirus pandemic (SARS-CoV-1). This pandemic was more alarming than that of COVID-19 because of the high mortality rate associated with the infection (10% of the 438 Canadian cases). SARS-CoV-1 was much less widespread than COVID-19 (fewer than 10,000 people infected globally and 700 deaths).