Chinese scientists believe that vaccine and prescription for preventing and treating severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) are likely to be available in the coming few months.

Yuan Zhenghong, director of a Shanghai-based national key laboratory under the Ministry of Health, said that local research bodies are now cooperating with Hong Kong and Guangzhou on the study of the SARS vaccine.

Local scientists are expected to put forward a blue print on the development of the vaccine in the near future, he noted.

Prescription for medicines that could be used for healing SARS patients could be available in two or three months, said Ding Jian, deputy director of Shanghai Institute of Medicine under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Since it usually takes eight to 12 years to develop a new drug, local experts plan to work out a prescription by studying on a dozen of existing drugs, Ding said.

Yuan, who is also head of the city's collaboration group on the study of pathogeny, disclosed that Shanghai has developed a reagent that could detect SARS virus in two hours. The reagent proves to be 100 percent correct, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2003)