Three kinds of vaccine for the severe acute respiratory syndrome
(SARS) will be ready for clinical testing after passing an upcoming
experts evaluation, according to China's medical authority.
Yin Hongzhang, biology produce section director of the Medicine
Register Department of the State Food and Drug Administration
(SFDA) said Tuesday at a forum on SARS that the developers had
declared their achievements to the agency and were preparing
detailed information for inspection.
"We are speeding up checks on their claims but the necessary
steps cannot be omitted to ensure quality," Yin said.
China spent over six months developing the vaccines since the
project was initiated in April, when SARS hit Beijing. The first
vaccine was declared to the SFDA last November.
The flu-like disease struck over 8,000 patients worldwide.
Several provinces of the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan,
Singapore and Canada's Toronto were on the World Health
Organization's (WHO) list of the most seriously affected area.
WHO, healthcare agency of the United Nations, announced last
July that the virus had been contained globally. But there was "no
evidence whether it will come back this winter".
"These vaccines might enter clinical testing at an early date.
But their effectiveness and safety will only be proved after years
of research," Yin said.
WHO predicted that one or two years at least, and up to four or
five years would be needed to determine the best vaccine for
widespread clinical use.
(Xinhua News Agency December 17, 2003)