TNF and severe acute respiratory syndrome: Decrease in IL-8 and TGF- β may be consistent with T lymphocytes depletion in severe patients. While decrease of T lymphocyte is associated with severity of SARS. Levels of TNF- α and IL-1 did not differ between SARS and control, this was inconsistent with results in influenza infection and suggested the need for cytokine detection in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid