News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – In a major effort to track influenza viruses in nature and learn more about how they interact with the human body, the federal government this week announced a $23-million-a-year program to fund research centers at six institutions around the country.

Aug 11, 2004 (CIDRAP News) – Government officials and scientists yesterday recognized the formal opening of construction on a laboratory that will house research on the most dangerous emerging infectious diseases and potential bioterrorism agents.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal government researchers have reported promising results in animal testing of a candidate SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) vaccine that combines a weakened form of vaccinia virus with a gene from the SARS coronavirus.

Editor's note: This story was revised Apr 1, 2004, to include additional information from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

(CIDRAP News) – An experimental vaccine developed by federal researchers prevented the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) coronavirus from reproducing in laboratory mice, according to a report published in the Apr 1 issue of Nature.

(CIDRAP News) – A study in which mice developed antibodies to the SARS coronavirus indicates that efforts to make a SARS vaccine that would trigger the production of antibodies are on the right track, according to federal health officials.