Faculty Bibliography

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

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

''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 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

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

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

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

C.D.C. researchers 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, however, strongly indicate that someone had been infected with the SARS virus, while a negative test would not necessarily rule out such infection, Dr. [Julie L. Gerberding] said. The World Health Organization has said the SARS virus, which is a newly discovered member of the coronavirus family, is the cause of 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 even more severe, illness, or become a seasonal disease, like influenza and other coronaviruses. Dr. [Earl G. 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, and the samples would then have to be cultured, sequenced and compared. And since it is also possible that SARS came from a mutated human coronavirus, researchers would have to search for human viruses as well

PHOTO CHART; AP photo/Greg Baker Quarantined: Students at Beijing's Northern Jiaotong University cheer as the end of their quarantine is announced Thursday. After spending two weeks in quarantine, about 400 students were allowed to go home. Chart: (color) SARS strikes old: SARS fatality ratio by age. THURSDAY'S DEVELOPMENTS GENEVA: The World Health Organization sharply raised its estimate of the SARS death rate to 14-15 percent, up from 6-10 percent. The U.N. health agency also extended a SARS travel warning to Taiwan's capital and the Chinese provinces of Tianjin and Inner Mongolia. The WHO already had issued travel warnings for Hong Kong, Beijing and China's Guangdong and Shanxi provinces. WORLD: The death toll from SARS passed 500 dead and 7,000 infected, with China announcing five more fatalities and Hong Kong four. RUSSIA: The government ordered the closure of some border checkpoints with China after doctors diagnosed Russia's first SARS case in Blagoveshchensk, a town on the Chinese border. Russian aviation officials ordered airlines and cargo carriers to suspend reservations on flights to mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan in connection to SARS. UNITED STATES: Thousands of customs and immigration inspectors are being trained to detect SARS symptoms and are ordered to detain those who exhibit them as part of attempts to prevent a U.S. outbreak. CHINA: The government said the nation's SARS situation was 'still grim' and announced measures to limit the economic impact. Among the measures were orders to businesses in hard-hit areas not to fire employees and for officials to adopt policies to help aviation, tourism, restaurants and other businesses. CHINA: State news agency Xinhua reported that more than 120 officials accused of negligence in responding to the SARS outbreak hac been fired or punished over the past month. Houston Rocket's basketball star Yao Ming will host a telethon Sunday in Shanghai to raise money for SARS. CHINA: WHO investigators traveled to the northern province of Hebei to study how to stop SARS from spreading in the poor countryside. A major outbreak in densely populated farming areas would be a catastrophe because rural hospitals are ill-equipped to deal with the epidemic