Chinese scientists believe that vaccine and prescription for
preventing and treating severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)
are likely to be available in the coming few months.
Yuan Zhenghong, director of a Shanghai-based national key
laboratory under the Ministry of Health, said that local research
bodies are now cooperating with Hong Kong and Guangzhou on the
study of the SARS vaccine.
Local scientists are expected to put forward a blue print on the
development of the vaccine in the near future, he noted.
Prescription for medicines that could be used for healing SARS
patients could be available in two or three months, said Ding Jian,
deputy director of Shanghai Institute of Medicine under the Chinese
Academy of Sciences.
Since it usually takes eight to 12 years to develop a new drug,
local experts plan to work out a prescription by studying on a
dozen of existing drugs, Ding said.
Yuan, who is also head of the city's collaboration group on the
study of pathogeny, disclosed that Shanghai has developed a reagent
that could detect SARS virus in two hours. The reagent proves to be
100 percent correct, he said.
(Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2003)
