A Retired woman has offered to test a SARS vaccine developed in Guangdong.

Ms. Tao, 50, was the first applicant for the test in the province, the Guangzhou Daily reported.

Tao, who lives in Shunde District, Foshan, said she had not contracted SARS this year. However, she deeply sympathized with her colleagues and neighbors who contracted the virus.

Guangdong began to recruit volunteers to test the SARS vaccine starting from Monday. Many people had applied for the test since the news was released.

The vaccine had passed a trial on animals and would go on clinical trial if found to be successful on volunteers, said a SARS expert.

The volunteers would be chosen from different age groups, but most should be young people, experts said. Volunteers should have no SARS history, they said.

About 200 volunteers were needed for the first stage of the tests, while the third stage would need more than 1,000 volunteers, said an expert with the provincial disease control and prevention center.

The efficacy of the vaccine would not be known until it could be tested on a SARS patient, said the expert.

The vaccine is now being examined by the State Food and Drug Administration. It was submitted to the administration at the same time a SARS vaccine developed by the Beijing Kexing Bio-product Co. was submitted.

The expert said he felt confident that enough volunteers would be recruited. Enditem

(Shenzhen Daily November 25, 2003)