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| Chinese scientists still developing SARS vaccine |
| CCTV.COM 2003-05-07 10:05:17 |
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Scientists from Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland say they are making progress in their bid to develop a kind of vaccine to overcome the deadly SARS virus. So far they have developed an effective way to test for the presence of coronavirus, said to be the cause of SARS.
Hong Kong is one of the places most cruelly hit by the SARS epidemic. Since the outbreak of SARS in early March, scientists in the Special Administrative Region have been working hard in the fight against the virus. It took them less than one month to identify a kind of coronavirus as the cause of SARS. The discovery has been of special significance in the treatment of SARS patients and in containing the spread of the deadly virus.
Yeun Kwok－Yung, head of Dept. of Microbiology of HK University said: "The most important thing is to find and determine the origin of the virus. If we had not found the cause of the disease three months after its outbreak, we would have faced a great disaster, since we would not have known how to deal with it."
Besides identifying the virus, scientists in Hong Kong have also developed an effective clinical way to test for the presence of coronavirus. Out the 50 SARS patients tested by them, 45 had been found infected by the virus. So far, scientists from the University of Hong Kong have completed the genetic sequencing of the coronavirus, and determined that the virus has been passed to humans from an undetermined breed of animal.
Dr. Yeun Kwok－Yung said the identification of the coronavirus and the development of an effective SARS test will facilitate his team in finally developing a vaccine against SARS in the near future. He also called on scientists from different regions to strengthen cooperation in overcoming SARS. On a positive note, the number of cases being reported daily in Hong Kong has been dropping in recent days.
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Editor: Zhao Xuan CCTV.com
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