It was supposed to kill millions. If the death count was surprisingly low then it succeeded as a threat so major it disrupted whole economies. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the specter of 2003, proved that in an international crisis international cooperation can work. Written by those most closely involved with the efforts to stop SARS, this collection of 27 papers gives summaries, country and area perspectives, the history of outbreaks, the science learned about SARS, and the lessons learned. Topics include the means of coordinating a global response, surveillance, spreading events such as those at a hotel in China, on an airliner, in public areas and a hospital, clinical features, epidemiology, animal and human coronaviruses, laboratory diagnostics, vaccine development and biocontainment. Country-level procedures examined include those of China, Viet Nam, Singapore, Taiwan, The Philippines, Mongolia, and Canada. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)