China SARS Vaccine Passes First Hurdle - State Media

Chinese researchers have developed a SARS vaccine that has passed the first stage of human trials, state media reported on Monday, raising hopes for prevention of a virus that killed some 800 people since it emerged in 2002.

Antibodies against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome developed in 24 of 36 volunteers in the trial, the official Xinhua news agency said, though several more clinical trials were required before the vaccine would be ready for commercial use.

"We have finished our first-phase clinical test in line with international vaccine-testing requirements," the China Daily quoted the director of the research team, Yin Weidong, as saying.

SARS infected more than 8,000 people in nearly 30 countries and killed nearly 800 following an outbreak, which first emerged in southern China in 2002.

It briefly re-emerged in China in April, killing one person and fuelling fears that the disease could surface in an annual cycle similar to human flu.

The Chinese government was accused of initially covering up the disease, but now more than 100 scientists had joined China's research programme, the China Daily said.

There were more than 10 types of potential SARS vaccines under development, the newspaper said. Four of them, developed in Canada and the United States, would go into clinical trials by the end of the year.