SARS Vaccine Developed

sbszine writes "Chinese scientists have successfully produced a SARS vaccine. In a clinical trial beginning in May, 36 volunteers were vaccinated. Most have now developed antibodies, and there have been no side effects reported. Slashdot covered the commencement of the clinical trial in an earlier story."

Comments

Umm...

[Anonymous Coward]

So... no one cares anymore?

Or is it that the China-trolls have not come yet?

Medical research

[Will_Malverson]

Yeah, medical research is a lot easier when you don't have the liability concern of having to compensate patients for things that go wrong, and you don't have those silly western 'ethics' about doing tests on humans before doing animal tests and being ridiculously sure it's safe.

Am I being demeaningly sarcastic, or wistfully jealous? I'm not sure.

Re:Medical research

[Yokaze]

> and you don't have those silly western 'ethics' about doing tests on humans before doing animal tests

First, I assume you want to suggest that it is western ethics to do tests on animals before doing tests on humans.

And what makes you say, that? Do the article suggest anything like that?

Re:Medical research

[Idarubicin]

... you don't have those silly western 'ethics' about doing tests on humans before doing animal tests and being ridiculously sure it's safe.

On the other hand, China was much harder hit by SARS than North America was. In the United States, there were only about thirty cases. If they're afraid that the next outbreak will infect millions of Chinese instead of thousands (with a fatality rate of more than ten percent), then yes--I can see it being sound policy to expedite vaccine development and testing. If there had been an outbreak of a novel disease in the United States that infected seven thousand people and killed seven hundred, I can see the FDA being pressured to rapidly approve trials, too.

Besides--they weren't testing vaccine efficacy by exposing people to the virus. They just tested the volunteers' blood for antibodies to SARS. This gives a pretty good indication that their immune system will respond to the virus without actually risking their health.

Meanwhile, the vaccine is probably made from recombinant protein that mimics the SARS virus' protein coat. Lacking the virus' genetic material, the vaccine cannot cause disease. The worst that is likely to happen would be an allergic reaction, but you can't eliminate that risk with animal testing--eventually you have to put it into a human and see what happens.

Re:Medical research

[Anonymous Coward]

there is a good chance millions may have been hit in china.

looking at their history of AIDS. unfortunately the govt kept it all hidden and didnt allow it to be know that upwards of 15 million people have been infected.

"Volunteers"?

[Paster Of Muppets]

So they actually got people to "volunteer" for this trial? Surely anybody who heard the (Western) news about SARS wouldn't have gone anywhere near something that stood a good chance of infecting them with it, so it begs the question (if they were "volunteers" and not "volunteered") of what has the Chinese Government released to its citizens about SARS?

Re:"Volunteers"?

[StuckInSyrup]

Nothing melodramatic about that. It's most probably a subunit vaccine (no infectious particles, just selected antigens), so there is no threat of infection from the vaccine. Today, most antiviral vaccines are of this type.

Re:"Volunteers"?

[Anonymous Coward]

And the free breakfast buffet at the clinic was a big plus, too. :P

Re:"Volunteers"?

[Sithgunner]

Besides, if you're dying for being poor, it's one way to get money.

If you're happy with your life to some extent, I don't think you want to do this.

Re:"Volunteers"?

[Cynikal]

I dunno, the was a time while working in a call center and an exhausted list of options for time off i would have volunteered to contract sars. I always wondered what convergys' policy was for power vomiting blood all over your station and the person next to you.

ah who am i kidding, they'd probly still demand a doctor's note...

Definitely Jealous

[archnerd]

You don't often see a case in which China is freer than the West, but here it's true. In China, subjects are free to enter into clinical trials, by the mutual consent of the researcher and the subject, with full mutual understanding of the risks involved in doing so. It's a completely voluntary form of association (aside from possible cases where the Chinese government might force people into such tests, but that's not what I'm talking about). In the US we could never do such a thing, because either the FDA would interfere, or the lawyers would sue everybody into bankruptcy as soon as one of the subjects sneezed.

The cure was discovered and proven months ago

[eneville]

The cure (if you don't know) is Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup, DayQuil and Sprite, thats to Matt and Trey at Southpark Comedy central for that.

Zombies

[j0nb0y]

This is the one that's going to turn everyone into zombies, right?

Re:Zombies

[cuteseal]

No, this is the blue one which is the antidote to the green zombie creating one. Or is it the other way around? Dang, back to the lab!! :D

Perfect Timing

[raider_red]

Since I've already had the damn thing! I caught it from a friend who brough it back from Toronto about two years ago.

It felt just like a case of the common cold, but I'm also in a low risk category. (No resp. problems, good immune system, greater 20 years old and less than 50.)

But it only matters if...

[CodeWanker]

SARS doesn't mutate rapidly. That's why we have a different flu vaccine every year. New strains are always evolving. And remember the "crisis" we had this year with the vaccine? It's only a crisis if the World Health Organization guessed the right strain to innoculate against. Sometimes they don't. In which case, no amount of vaccine matters.

Animal Testing

[sbszine]

I'm not sure from your post whether you're for or against animal testing, but here's my 0.02 anyway.

Animals and humans have some fundamental differences which mean they react differently to the same things. For example, arsenic is fatal to humans, but is a basic nutrient for goats and rats. (Specifically, a 2kg baby goat requires 70mcg of arsenic daily for normal development, an amount lethal to adult humans). One can imagine a drug containing arsenic being tested on lab rats and found safe.

Something similar actually happened in the case of thalidomide, which was approved by the FDA on the basis of tests on lab rats. As you'll note in the Wiki article, there is some debate over whether the tests were properly conducted. Whether they were or not, the testing was not only sufficient for the FDA, it was also actually used to demonstrate due diligence in court so that the manufacturers did not have to pay compensation to mothers of limbless thalidomide babies. This suggests to me that animal testing is being conducted for legal purposes, and on the honour system at that.

Having said that, I could see the point of testing a CJD vaccine on cows, a bird flu vaccine on birds etc. A clinical trial is still needed at some point if the drug is to be supplied to humans. Otherwise, as with thalidomide, the consumer ends up trialling the drug without their consent, and we get 15000 victims instead of 15.

SARS vs. HIV

[djrok212]

I find it personally interesting that we can find a vaccine for something like SARS so quickly in relative terms, however we still struggle to even understand how to attack the HIV virus.

Does anyone else share my curiosity?

I know that countries like China do not have the liability issues that drug companies here in the US have, so they are able to test canidates on humans far quicker. But I wonder if given their governments views if they are even looking at things like HIV.

Just my two cents.