Early influenza in Europe and SARS escaping from high security laboratories !

In this issue, Radun et al report a retrospective investigation of SARS in 21 German guests who stayed at Hotel 'M' in Hong Kong between 21 February and 3 March 2003 (1). They were able to identify retrospectively an unrecognized case of SARS in a patient who stayed on the ninth floor on the night of 21-22 February (the same floor as the symptomatic physician who had acquired SARS in Guangdong province, China).