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| Sino－US symposium on SARS opens in Beijing |
| CCTV.COM 2003-05-06 09:05:50 |
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China and the United States are undertaking joint research on SARS and have held a high level symposium on the disease. The two－day conference has gathered leading epidemiologists from both countries and senior officials.
This is the first such symposium between China and the US since the outbreak of SARS. It aims to inform the US medical community of the research progress of their Chinese counterparts and explore possible areas for further cooperation.
Chen Zhu, vice－president of Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: "We hope that through this seminar and future cooperation, we can better understand the disease mechanism, find better prevention, diagnosis and treatment measures, and step up information exchange and technology transfer."
Since the outbreak of the disease, China has launched an aggressive scientific research campaign. Researchers have made progress in identifying pathogens and developing a nationwide treatment protocol. Efforts are also underway to develop drugs and vaccines to treat or prevent the disease. Yet much remains unknown, and the scope and impact of the disease have been such that calls for urgent international collaboration have been made.
"We would like to help in all areas －－ developing rapid, sensitive and specific diagnostic tests to identify who needs to be treated when treatment becomes available, who is appropriate for quarantine, developing vaccine to prevent the disease and drugs to treat it, identify the source of SARS, in a word to respond to the global challenge that SARS represents to all of us," said Prof. W. Ian Lipkin, director of Center for Infectious Diseases, Columbia University.
Prof. Lipkin says in the United States, where more than 50 people have been infected, the medical community is fully mobilized to confront the disease.
Parallel groups have been set up on the development of a vaccine, including the use of molecular biology technology to prevent or modify the effect of infection.
Experts at the conference agree on the global health risks the disease poses. And they are also united in believing that joint efforts by the world medical community will lead to a way to curb the disease.
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Editor: Xiao Wei CCTV.com
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