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International Conference on SARS - one year after the (first) outbreak

08. - 11.05.2004, Lübeck

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Characterization of SARS coronavirus genomes in Taiwan: Molecular epidemiology and genome evolution

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  • corresponding author presenting/speaker Shiou-Hwei Yeh - Division of Molecular and Genomic Medicine, National Health Research Institutes, Taiwan; Hepatitis Research Center, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
  • Hurng-Yi Wang - Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
  • Ching-Yi Tsai - Hepatitis Research Center, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
  • Chuan-Liang Kao - Department of Medical Technology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
  • Jyh-Yuan Yang - Center for Disease Control, Taipei, Taiwan
  • Hwan-Wun Liu - Institute of Preventive Medicine, National Defense Medical College, Taiwan
  • Ih-Jen Su - Center for Disease Control, Taipei, Taiwan
  • Shih-Feng Tsai - Division of Molecular and Genomic Medicine, National Health Research Institutes, Taiwan
  • Ding-Shinn Chen - Hepatitis Research Center, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital; Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
  • Pei-Jer Chen - Hepatitis Research Center, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital; Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
  • National Taiwan University SARS Research Team

International Conference on SARS - one year after the (first) outbreak. Lübeck, 08.-11.05.2004. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2004. Doc04sars2.02

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/sars2004/04sars008.shtml

Published: May 26, 2004

© 2004 Yeh et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Since early March 2003, the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus infection has claimed 346 cases and 37 deaths in Taiwan. The epidemic occurred in two stages. The first stage caused limited familial or hospital infections, and lasted from early March to mid-April. All cases had clear contact histories, primarily from Guangdong or Hong Kong. The second stage resulted in a large outbreak in a municipal hospital, and quickly spread to northern and southern Taiwan from late April to mid-June. During this stage, there were some sporadic cases with untraceable contact histories. To investigate the origin and transmission route of SARS-CoV in Taiwan's epidemic, we conducted a systematic viral lineage study by sequencing the entire viral genome from ten SARS patients. SARS-CoV viruses isolated from Taiwan were found closely related to those from Guangdong and Hong Kong. In addition, all cases from the second stage belonged to the same lineage following the municipal hospital outbreak, including the patients without an apparent contact history. Analyses of these full-length sequences showed a positive selection occurring during SARS-CoV virus evolution. The mismatch distribution indicated that SARS viral genomes did not reach equilibrium and suggested a recent introduction of the viruses into human populations. The estimated genome mutation rate was approximately 0.1 per genome, demonstrating possibly one of the lowest rates among known RNA viruses.