<unk>  (SARS-CoV-1 or SARS-CoV) is a strain of coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the respiratory illness responsible for the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak. It is an enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus which infects the epithelial cells within the lungs. The virus enters the host cell by binding to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2. It infects humans, bats, and palm civets. On<unk> 6 April 2003, following the outbreak of SARS in Asia and secondary cases elsewhere in the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a press release stating that the coronavirus identified by a number of laboratories was the official cause of SARS. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States and National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in Canada identified the SARS-CoV-1 genome in April 2003. Scientists at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, demonstrated that the SARS coronavirus fulfilled Koch's postulates, thereby confirming it as the causative agent. In the experiments, macaques infected with the virus developed the same symptoms as human SARS victims. A virus very similar to SARS was discovered in late 2019. This virus, named<unk>  (SARS-CoV-2), is the causative pathogen of COVID-19, the propagation of which started the COVID-19 pandemic.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 1
Influenza D virus
Influenza A virus
Influenza B virus
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Middle East respiratory syndrome–related coronavirus
Chinese coronavirus
Severe acute respiratory syndrome–related coronavirus