Hong Kong- A Hong Kong inquest on Wednesday put an end to fears that a new mystery virus was behind the deaths of three children last year. A jury at the inquest returned unanimous verdicts of death by natural causes for all three children who died within weeks of each other in March 2008.
The deaths forced the closure of primary schools and kindergartens and brought the return of the face mask which was sold by the millions during the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak which killed 299 people and infected 1,755 in Hong Kong in the spring and early summer of 2003.
Many feared that a new virus had emerged to target children in the city of 6.9 million.
However, the inquest found different viruses were responsible for the illness in all three children, aged three to seven.
As well as SARS, Hong Kong saw the world's first modern-day outbreak of bird flu in 1997 when the virus infected 18 people, killing six of them.
