AR-News: China to test experimental SARS vaccine in humans

[Andrew Gach]

China gave permission for doctors to start injecting an experimental SARS vaccine into volunteers, in the first such step anywhere and one that experts said carries risks.

The so-called first-phase vaccine trial, announced by state media Monday, would test the safety of the vaccine in humans. "The vaccine was found safe in experiments on animals, including the rhesus monkey," Zheng Youyu, director of the State Food and Drug Administration, was quoted as saying by the Xinhua news agency. Some 30 people have volunteered for the trial, state television reported. Mr. Zheng was quoted as saying it would be some time before a vaccine would be ready for widespread use.

The development of a safe and effective vaccine would mark a significant step in efforts to prevent outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome, which last year spread to 30 countries from southern China before the epidemic petered out. It killed 774 people world-wide and sickened more than 8,000. In China, 349 people died.

China says the disease resurfaced recently in three people in the southern city of Guangzhou, though they don't appear to have spread SARS.

Developing a vaccine is a matter of national pride for China. Scientists from Hong Kong and abroad have made most of the significant discoveries about SARS, and scientists in other countries also are working on vaccines.

http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB107451707111005200,00.html
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