CHINA: RESEARCHERS SAY THEY HAVE DESIGNED THE FIRST DIAGNOSTIC TEST FOR A KILLER PHEUMONIA

Record ID: 231238

  • Title: CHINA: RESEARCHERS SAY THEY HAVE DESIGNED THE FIRST DIAGNOSTIC TEST FOR A KILLER PHEUMONIA
  • Date: 25th March 2003
  • Summary: (W3) HONG KONG, CHINA (MARCH 22, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SLV VIROLOGY CHIEF, MALIK PEIRIS, START OF NEWS CONFERENCE 0.05 2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROFESSOR MALIK PEIRIS, VIROLOGY CHIEF AT UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG SAYING "It is quite a tricky disease and a tricky virus as well. It's well worth being very careful. So what we are trying to do is to genetically analyse what the virus' genes are and then come to a conclusion as to what kind of virus it is." 0.21 3. MV SLIDE SHOW DEMONSTRATION OF VIRUS CELLS DURING NEWS CONFERENCE 0.35 4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROFESSOR MALIK PEIRIS SAYING "This is a matter of degree. If you mutate far enough, then it becomes very different. I think this is a very unusual disease and I think it is a very unusual virus so I think we will be very careful." 0.49 5. SCU PROFESSOR ASSISTANT DEMONSTRATES PHOTOGRAPHS OF VIRUS 1.00 6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROFESSOR MALIK PEIRIS SAYING: "I think of course the first step is to grow the virus, study its genes and that is very important to make a vaccine. But I can't predict how long that would take. It's definitely not a matter of weeks. It's a longer term objective and a longer term task." 1.25 7. SLV PRESSER; MV DOCTORS WEARING MASKS AT HONG KONG HOSPITAL; SLV HOSPITAL (7 SHOTS) 2.20 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 9th April 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: HONG KONG, CHINA
  • Country: Hong Kong
  • Reuters ID: LVA669RMC4Q8K6EN1P6W75LATDRB
  • Story Text: Hong Kong researchers have said they have designed the
    first diagnostic test for a killer pneumonia which has spread
    across the world.

    Hong Kong researchers said on Saturday (March 23, 2003)
    they were one step closer to finding a cure for the mysterious
    pneumonia that has claimed the lives at least a dozen people
    across the world.

    "It is quite a tricky disease and a tricky virus as well.

    It's well worth being very careful. So what we are trying to
    do is to genetically analyse what the virus' genes are and
    then come to a conclusion as to what kind of virus it is,"
    Professor Malik Peiris, the virology chief at the University
    of Hong Kong, told a news conference.

    Some 350 people in 13 countries have been infected by the
    pneumonia, which researchers said appeared to be caused by a
    new virus. Twelve people have died worldwide, including seven
    in Hong Kong.

    Almost all confirmed infections are in Hong Kong, Vietnam,
    Singapore and Canada and most are believed to be linked to one
    doctor from China's southern Guangdong province, who treated
    patients in China before dying from the disease. Asked if it
    was a new strain or a mutated form of a known virus, Peiris
    said: "This is a matter of degree. If you mutate far enough,
    then it becomes very different. I think this is a very
    unusual disease and I think it is a very unusual virus so I
    think we will be very careful."
    Scientists in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Germany and Canada had
    earlier identified viruses taken from patients as
    paramyxoviruses, a large family of microbes that includes the
    germs that cause measles, mumps and respiratory infections.

    There is currently no vaccine or specific cure for this
    strain of pneumonia. But Hong Kong doctors have been treating
    patients with ribavirin, an anti-virus drug and steroids.

    Experience showed 70 percent of patients would improve if
    treated in good time, Peiris said.

    His research team isolated a virus from the lung of a
    patient and successfully grew or "cultured" it for study, They
    then designed the diagnostic test, which would tell a patient
    is infected with the disease within five to 14 days.

    Peiris said early diagnosis enabled early treatment and
    therefore a greater chance of recovery.

    "I think of course the first step is to grow the virus,
    study its genes and that is very important to make a vaccine.

    But I can't predict how long that would take. It's definitely
    not a matter of weeks. It's a longer term objective and a
    longer term task."
    The WHO has issued its first global alert in a decade over
    the deadly disease, called severe acute respiratory syndrome.

    Hong Kong officials said on Saturday one more patient had
    died, bringing the death toll there to seven. But the
    officials said they had not yet established whether the latest
    victim, an old man, had died of this illness.

    Hong Kong officials have stressed that the spread of the
    disease is slow. Most of the sick are health care workers and
    relatives with close contacts with the pneumonia patients.

    The illness begins with a high fever, dry cough, chills,
    and severe breathing difficulties. A healthy and athletic
    adult can end up on a respirator within five days.


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