23 Years Ago, SARS Emerged as a Precursor to COVID-19

Imagine a nasty flu-like sickness called SARS that appeared a long time ago, even before COVID-19.

It started in China with just one person in late 2002.

This sickness spread to many countries, making over 8,000 people sick and causing about 774 deaths worldwide.

In India, only a few people got sick, and thankfully, no one died from it.

Doctors learned a lot from SARS, like how to track sick people and improve their hospitals.

This experience helped them react faster when COVID-19 showed up later.

SARS was easier to stop because people were most sick when they were already in the hospital, unlike COVID-19 which can spread easily even when someone feels fine.

It taught us that we need to be careful with animals and nature to prevent new sicknesses from spreading.