MADRAS, India -- The virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome just loves crowds. And India has crowds. Although there have been relatively few cases of SARS so far, fears of a pandemic are real.
With a population of a little more than 1 billion -- second only to that of China -- India is an extremely congested nation. Therefore, the SARS virus, which can survive for four hours outside a human body, has no shortage of potential hosts.
Imagine someone coughing or sneezing on one of the overcrowded suburban trains in Bombay or buses in Calcutta, and you have the makings of a frightening epidemic.