SARS: virus Alert | M6 | Zone Interdite

On February 22, 2003, an elderly Chinese doctor stayed in the Metropole Hotel in Hong Kong. He was feverish, he was coughing. He would die ten days later after having contaminated at least 13 people. He is the first known victim of the atypique pneumopathy epidemic. Daniel Lainé has carried out an investigation tracing this virus which began in southern China in November 2002 and which has threatened lives in France. He has followed researchers at the Pasteur Institute and the WHO sent to China on an emergency mission to find the origin of the virus and to trace its itinerary, with the victims in China, Vietnam and France. A race against death for these doctors trying to identify the virus, in order to develop a vaccine or medicine capable of neutralizing it.