More urged to guard against SARS comeback

More needs to be done to prepare for a possible comeback of the deadly SARS virus, Chinese and German scientists urged in Beijing yesterday.

"The key task now is to get well prepared for possible outbreaks of SARS or other viruses," said Rolf Hilgenfeld, a structural biologist at the University of Lbeck in Germany, at a meeting in the capital to close the four-year Sino-European Project on SARS Diagnostics and Antivirals.

The SARS virus caused widespread panic and killed about 800 people worldwide in 2003.