At the end of 2002, the first cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) were reported, and in the following year, SARS resulted in considerable mortality and morbidity worldwide. SARS is caused by a novel species of coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and is the most severe coronavirus-mediated human disease that has been described so far. On the basis of similarities with other coronavirus infections, SARS might, in part, be immune mediated. As discussed in this Review, studies of animals that are infected with other coronaviruses indicate that excessive and sometimes dysregulated responses by macrophages and other pro-inflammatory cells might be particularly important in the pathogenesis of disease that is caused by infection with these viruses. It is hoped that lessons from such studies will help us to understand more about the pathogenesis of SARS in humans and to prevent or control outbreaks of SARS in the future.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 149. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 03 August 2026.
All research outputs
#349,410
of 34,566,597 outputs
Outputs from Nature Reviews Immunology
#153
of 3,046 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#669
of 219,258 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Nature Reviews Immunology
#1
of 17 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,566,597 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,046 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 42.6. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 219,258 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 17 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its contemporaries.
