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Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control have developed a test like the Elisa, which is used to screen for the AIDS virus and other infectious agents. The SARS test is expected to have limited use because it cannot detect antibodies until three weeks after the onset of illness. A positive result would strongly indicate that an individual had been infected with the SARS virus, but a negative test would not necessarily rule out such infection, [Julie Gerberding] said. Dr. Earl Brown, a virologist at the University of Ottawa, said: 'I hope that SARS will change, but I'm concerned. This virus seems to be happy with the genes it's got.' Brown, in a commentary on the study in The Lancet, suggested that because the SARS virus had changed relatively little in its first few months, it seemed unlikely to mutate into a milder form

A look back shows striking differences in the way public health officials reacted to AIDS and SARS -- and it shows how much health agencies' quick response to SARS owes to the lessons of AIDS. The AIDS and SARS viruses damage the body in different ways. AIDS slowly attacks the immune system; symptoms take about 10 years to appear. SARS is faster: It takes two to 10 days, possibly as long as 13, from exposure to the onset of symptoms. Initially, each virus primarily affected young adults -- gay men for AIDS and health workers of both sexes for SARS. Because AIDS spreads through sexual activity, contaminated needles among drug injectors and from mothers to children, it still afflicts mostly young adults. SARS spreads indiscriminately, and patients have varied more widely in age. But, for unknown reasons, SARS has largely spared children

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control have developed a test like the Elisa, which is used to screen for the AIDS virus and other infectious agents. The SARS test is expected to have limited use because it cannot detect antibodies until three weeks after the onset of illness. A positive result would strongly indicate that an individual had been infected with the SARS virus, but a negative test would not necessarily rule out such infection, [Julie Gerberding] said. Dr. Earl Brown, a virologist at the University of Ottawa, said: 'I hope that SARS will change, but I'm concerned. This virus seems to be happy with the genes it's got.' Brown, in a commentary on the study in The Lancet, suggested that because the SARS virus had changed relatively little in its first few months, it seemed unlikely to mutate into a milder form. The World Health Organization has said that a newly discovered member of the coronavirus family causes SARS. But the agency and other scientists agree that more work needs to be done to be certain. Scientists know that other coronaviruses have a high rate of mutation and so they say that it is far too soon to know whether the SARS virus will change to cause milder, or more severe, illness, or become a seasonal disease, like influenza and other coronaviruses. The SARS virus does not closely resemble other known human and animal coronaviruses, and scientists do not know its origins. Brown said that studying animals in China to trace SARS back to its possible origin would be a formidable task. Countless animals would have to be swabbed for viruses, which would then have to be cultured, sequenced and compared. Since it is also possible that SARS came from a mutated human coronavirus , researchers would have to search for human viruses as well

As sewage continues to spill directly into the streets of Iraq's second-largest city and the population increasingly relies on water from fetid canals, the World Health Organization warned yesterday that [BASRA] was poised for an epidemic of cholera. The disease has been endemic in Basra and most other areas of Iraq since the 1980s. A major outbreak occurred in the Basra region in 1991, after the first Persian Gulf War. At that time, the power was knocked out, incapacitating the water treatment plants that provided a relatively safe system. Half a million tons of raw sewage flowed into the rivers daily, according to the United Nations

As sewage continues to spill into the streets of this city, Iraq's second largest, and the local population is increasingly relying on water from fetid canals, the World Health Organization warned today that [Basra] was poised for an epidemic of cholera. At least 55 suspected cases have been reported in Basra in recent days, and Dr. Denis Coulombier, an official of the health agency here, estimated that several hundred more cases had yet to be diagnosed. There have been no deaths. Local hospitals have the ability to perform diagnostic tests for cholera. But looting and lack of security have restricted testing in the outbreak. Last week, stool samples from 17 suspected cases were sent from Basra to Kuwait for confirmation. But they arrived in such poor condition that the diagnoses could not be confirmed, said Dr. [Claire-Lise Chaignat] of the World Health Organization

''The compound itself will probably not be used for a drug to treat SARS, but is a very good starting point for designing drugs that fit better,'' he said. He added that both AG-7088 and the protease inhibitor that he and his colleagues created should be studied as possible bases for a SARS drug. Drugs that work in a similar way are used to treat AIDS. On Sunday in Hong Kong, another researcher also reported possible progress in identifying drugs to treat SARS. Dr. David Ho, scientific director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York, said at a news conference that he and his colleagues had synthesized several compounds, known as peptides, that could prevent the SARS virus from entering human cells. But Dr. Ho also said it would take years of testing before any of the drugs might be marketed. The businessman died before SARS was first recognized, in Asia. After the W.H.O.'s global alert led to wide publicity, a friend of the dead man questioned whether he might have died from SARS. Nigerian officials traced his contacts, but have found no evidence of SARS, Dr. [David L. Heymann] said

As sewage continues to spill directly into the streets of Iraq's second-largest city and the population increasingly relies on water from fetid canals, the World Health Organization has warned that Basra is poised for an epidemic of cholera. Dr. Claire-Lise Chaignat, who directs the World Health Organization's cholera program in Geneva, said, 'Once cholera starts to burst, then it is very difficult to contain.' Until an effective community water supply can be put in place, health workers are trying to teach residents to chlorinate and boil their water. The disease has been endemic in Basra and most other areas of Iraq since the 1980s. A major outbreak occurred in the Basra region in 1991, after the first Gulf War. At that time, the power was knocked out, incapacitating the water treatment plants that provided a relatively safe system. Half a million tons of raw sewage flowed into the rivers daily, according to the United Nations

In a statement issued Tuesday, Pfizer said it had already given government researchers AG-7088, along with dozens of other antiviral compounds, to test as possible treatments for SARS. The company said some of the compounds had shown moderate activity against the virus, but [Betsy Raymond] said she did not know whether AG-7088 was among the active ones. On Sunday in Hong Kong, another researcher also reported possible progress in identifying drugs to treat SARS. Dr. David Ho, scientific director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York, said at a news conference that he and his colleagues had synthesized several compounds, known as peptides, that could prevent the SARS virus from entering human cells. But Ho also said it would take years of testing before any of the drugs might be marketed

The agency also issued its first guidelines on blood donations by healthy travelers from areas affected by SARS and by people who later develop the disease. The recommendations were made as a precaution even though there are no known cases of SARS acquired by transfusions. Concern exists because low levels of the virus have been detected in the blood of SARS patients up to 10 days after the onset of symptoms. Formal studies of how long the virus persists in blood have not been performed. The agency's recommendations for deferral of blood donations are for longer periods than those the U.S. Food and Drug Administration made on April 17, when less was known about SARS. The FDA continues to recommend a two-week deferral for people who have had contact with a SARS patient and a 28-day deferral for those who had the disease. Other countries have recommended varying periods of deferral. Infection control is the main defense against the spread of SARS. A crucial measure in such control is isolation of patients with contagious respiratory diseases in specially engineered rooms, to prevent dispersal of the SARS virus or any other infectious agent elsewhere in a hospital

The Geneva-based UN agency expressed optimism last week after convening a panel of 50 experts from 15 countries to review reports on a number of candidate SARS vaccines. Scientists in Canada, China, the United States and possibly other countries began developing them after the SARS epidemic this year. [Marie-Paule Kieny] said by telephone that for many reasons it was too difficult to predict which research team would inject the first human with a SARS vaccine, and when, if ever, a vaccine might be available. If SARS does not return, and an experimental vaccine is found safe and able to produce antibodies in humans, ethics would preclude deliberately trying to infect a vaccine recipient with the SARS virus as a scientific challenge. The reason is the high death rate from SARS, about 11 percent