Carlo Urbani (Italian: [ˈkarlo urˈbaːni] ⓘ; 19 October 1956 – 29 March 2003) was an Italian physician and microbiologist and the first to identify severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) as probably a new and dangerously contagious viral disease,[1][2] and his early warning to the World Health Organization (WHO) triggered a swift and global response credited with saving numerous lives.

Urbani started volunteering for the African endemic disease cause since young joining the Italian Catholic NGO Mani Tese.

[3] With the prize money, Urbani decided to create a fund to promote an international campaign for access to essential medicines for the world's poorest populations.

Back in Asia,[3] Urbani was called into The French Hospital of Hanoi, Vietnam, in late February 2003 to look at an American patient, businessman Johnny Chen, who had fallen ill with what doctors thought was a bad case of influenza.

On 11 March 2003, as he flew from Hanoi to a conference in Bangkok, Thailand, where he was to talk on the subject of childhood parasites, Urbani started feeling feverish.