Faculty Bibliography

All countries should conduct inventories at their laboratories to determine where the SARS virus is being kept and what strains of the virus are being stored, [John MacKenzie] said Tuesday. Also, MacKenzie said, the WHO, an agency of the United Nations, and member countries needed to develop procedures to control which laboratories can hold and work with the virus, which apparently is confined to laboratories now. The committee came up with a list of high-priority research questions for researchers, but did not release the list. In the Singapore case, a 27-year-old doctoral student accidentally became infected with SARS while working on the West Nile virus. The student did not know he had been exposed to the SARS virus

The W.H.O. invited 45 international experts in public health, SARS, virologists, social sciences, laboratory science and other disciplines to meet for the first time to identify the most important gaps in knowledge about SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. The committee came up with a list of the highest priority research questions for researchers, but did not specify what the issues were. In the case this summer, a 27-year-old doctoral student accidentally became infected with SARS while working on the West Nile virus in a laboratory in Singapore. The student did not know he had been exposed to the SARS virus. Dr. Jong Wook Lee, the director general of the World Health Organization, assured the committee that the agency would devote more money for SARS, if needed. But, Dr. [Angus Nicoll] said, ''we are wary'' about the the agency's ability to deal with SARS and other epidemics of new and old diseases

Doctors have long linked one known as the antinuclear auto-antibody with a number of diseases, including lupus. But while many people who have the antinuclear auto-antibody later develop lupus, many more do not. There has been no reliable way to predict which people with the antinuclear antibody will develop lupus, in part because scientists have not conducted extensive studies to explore the development of such antibodies in the disease. Some auto-antibodies develop years before lupus, others just before the onset of the disease. The auto-antibodies that seemed to correlate with the onset of lupus are known as the anti-nuclear ribonucleoprotein and anti-Sm antibodies. Dr. [John B. Harley] said his team believed that Epstein-Barr virus infection was necessary to start the lupus process but required other factors because while the overwhelming majority of Americans are infected with that virus, only a small percentage get lupus

''Inappropriate laboratory standards and a cross-contamination of West Nile virus samples with SARS coronavirus in the laboratory led to the infection of the doctoral student,'' the committee reported. After the epidemic ended, the laboratory worked on the West Nile virus and SARS coronavirus at the same time. The committee said that the laboratory did not pause to review its procedures and that its record-keeping system was poor. As part of the committee's investigation, it asked Singapore scientists to thaw and test a stored vial that was supposed to contain West Nile virus only. SARS virus was also detected

In their vigil for a possible return of SARS, health officials have focused mainly on finding where the virus hides in nature. But the case of severe acute respiratory syndrome in a 27-year-old doctoral student in Singapore has shown an equally important risk -- escape of the virus from a laboratory. 'Inappropriate laboratory standards and a cross-contamination of West Nile virus samples with SARS coronavirus in the laboratory led to the infection of the doctoral student,' the committee reported. No additional spread occurred, preserving the disease's eradication. But the scientist in charge of the laboratory committed suicide. Now, many laboratories around the world have stored thousands of SARS specimens in freezers, ready to be thawed as needed. The WHO has cautioned China and other countries that accidents may occur in laboratories where there is little experience with dangerous infectious agents

The first report card on the United Nations' two-year-old commitment to defeat AIDS gives the world's countries generally low marks in their efforts to overcome ignorance about the disease and provide access to prevention and treatment measures, UN officials said. At the General Assembly's special session on AIDS in June 2001, UN members agreed that defeating AIDS would take commitment, resources and action

The researcher worked in a laboratory that Singapore had created to study the West Nile virus and other diseases before SARS became an epidemic earlier this year. The laboratory grew the SARS virus to provide materials for developing diagnostic tests. Because the Singapore government and the health organization's officials are deeply concerned about the possibility of SARS accidentally escaping from a laboratory, Singapore asked the health organization, a Geneva-based U.N. agency, to send an expert committee to investigate the circumstances of the researcher's case

The first report card on the United Nation's 2-year-old commitment to defeat AIDS gives the world's countries generally low marks in their efforts to overcome ignorance about the disease and provide access to prevention and treatment measures, UN officials said. At the General Assembly's special session on AIDS in June 2001, UN members agreed that defeating AIDS would take commitment, resources and action. The $4.7 billion is five times the amount spent in 1996 but less than half the $10 billion required for an effective response in 2005 and one-third of what will be needed by 2007, [Peter Piot] said. In part because of inadequate funding, many countries will not meet basic goals like rapidly expanding AIDS prevention and care that were expected of them by 2005. One goal is to ensure that by 2005 at least 80 percent of pregnant women have access to information, counseling and treatment to prevent transmission of the AIDS virus. But such services remain virtually nonexistent in the countries that are worst affected by AIDS, according to the report card that Piot's agency issued here Monday

The researcher worked in a laboratory that Singapore had created to study the West Nile virus and other diseases before SARS became epidemic earlier this year. The laboratory grew the SARS virus to provide materials for developing diagnostic tests