Faculty Bibliography

The longstanding threat of bioterrorism turned real with the deliberate release of anthrax spores in 2001. When SARS suddenly appeared, there was speculation that it was bioterrorism. Experts dismissed that. No one was ''smart enough to invent a SARS from scratch,'' said Dr. Joshua Lederberg, a Nobel Prize-winning microbiologist. Now, he said, ''SARS may end up being a biological weapon.'' If SARS does not return in the next few years, will companies have a continuing incentive to develop a vaccine that might never be needed? If industry lacks incentive, yet SARS returns, the consequences could be devastating. Plagues past and present, from 14th-century Florence to the Hong Kong airport during the SARS scare to the AIDS Quilt in Washington in 1996 and the AIDS virus. (Photo by Corbis-Bettmann, plague; Agence France-Presse, SARS screening; Associated Press, AIDS quilt)

The first human tests of an experimental SARS vaccine could begin as early as January, with laboratory researchers making surprisingly rapid progress toward preventing the respiratory illness, the World Health Organization and a top U.S. health official say. The U.N. agency expressed optimism after convening 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 earlier this year

The African nations are Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa and Tanzania, which have about one-third of all AIDS cases there. In the Caribbean, the aid will go to the Bahamas; Dominican Republic; Haiti; the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, which includes Antigua and Barbuda; Dominica; Grenada; St. Kitts and Nevis; St. Lucia, St.Vincent and the Grenadines; Anguilla and Montserrat; and the British Virgin Islands. More than 90 percent of Caribbean AIDS patients live in these areas

Doctors still do not know how best to treat SARS patients who have breathing difficulties, [Simon Mardel] said. One method is invasive ventilation, in which a patient is connected to a ventilator through a tube inserted in the windpipe, a procedure that generally requires sedation and temporary paralysis. A second method is noninvasive: A mask is fitted over the face and oxygen is blown into the lungs. Both carry the risk of transmitting the virus to hospital employees

It 'is a matter of urgency to get better analysis and review,' said Dr. Simon Mardel, a WHO official who led the two-day meeting that ended Friday. He said thousands of potential therapies and compounds had been tested so far as researchers try to determine treatments for SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome

The panel also recommended determining the amount of SARS virus in blood, respiratory secretions and other body fluids as a way of measuring response to antiviral and other drugs. But such measurements could be difficult to obtain if SARS re-emerged in poor countries. Doctors still do not know how best to treat SARS patients who have breathing difficulties, Dr. [Simon Mardel] said. One method is invasive ventilation, when a patient is connected to a ventilator, a procedure that generally requires sedation and temporary paralysis. A second method involves blowing oxygen into the lungs through a mask. Both carry the risk of transmitting the virus to hospital employees

The Geneva-based U.N. agency expressed optimism 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 earlier this year

In another experiment with mice, the scientists documented the strength of the mouse antibody protection against SARS. The scientists took the portion of blood that contains antibodies, injected it into the mice and then deliberately exposed the animals to the SARS virus. That process, known as passive transfer of antibody, completely protected against reinfection, Dr. [Anthony S. Fauci] said. Dr. [Brian Murphy] has not developed an experimental SARS vaccine but the neutralizing antibody he found in his experiments provide an important measure for determining the effectiveness of experimental SARS vaccines, Dr. Fauci said. 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

The Geneva-based U.N. agency expressed optimism 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 earlier this year. [Marie-Paule Kieny] said in a telephone interview that 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

The Geneva-based U.N. agency expressed optimism 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 earlier this year. [Marie-Paule Kieny] said in a telephone interview that 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. Members of [Anthony S. Fauci]'s institute, a federal agency in Bethesda, Md., participated in the WHO panel meeting. In a telephone interview, Fauci said he shared the belief that clinical tests of a SARS vaccine could begin early next year