 February 21, 2003, was just a normal day at Hotel Metropole in Hong Kong—until a guest, infected with SARS, became patient zero for an epidemic that rapidly infected people in dozens of countries around the world. This program—part dramatization, part documentary—illustrates how the SARS virus spread and was gradually contained. In addition, virology experts shed light on topics ranging from the relationship between a defect in the CCR5 gene and viruses such as HIV and bubonic plague; to the resurrection of an extinct retrovirus in order to learn how, long ago, the human immune system defeated it; to the connection between H1N1 Spanish flu and H5N1 avian flu. A part of the series The Virus Empire: Silent Killers and Invisible Enemies. (53 minutes)
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