On March 12, 2003, while the eyes of the world were focused on the war in Iraq, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a global alert on its website urging health workers around the world to watch out for an "atypical pneumonia" of unknown etiology which was spreading rapidly in China and Southeast Asia.
二○○三年三月十二日，正當全球聚焦於美伊戰事時，世界衛生組織（WHO）網站上發佈了一項全球警訊，希望各國醫護人員提高警覺，因為一種不明原因的「非典型嚴重肺炎」正在中國廣東及東南亞地區快速蔓延。