SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, is another type of coronavirus. You may hear this viral respiratory illness mentioned along with MERS (see above). In both instances, the acronyms themselves refer to the illnesses, while MERS-CoV or SARS-CoV refers specifically to the physical viruses. SARS is often used to contextualize the current coronavirus outbreak through the SARS epidemic of 2002 and 2003. That outbreak killed more than 770 people, with most of the deaths occurring in China and Hong Kong.