Hong Kong creates first diagnostic test for killer pneumonia

1.30pm

HONG KONG - Hong Kong researchers said today they had designed the first diagnostic test for a killer pneumonia which has spread across the world, coming a step closer to finding a cure for the mystery illness.

Some 350 people in 13 countries have been infected by the pneumonia, which researchers said appeared to be caused by a new virus. Twelve people have died worldwide, including seven in Hong Kong.

Almost all confirmed infections are in Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore and Canada and most are believed to be linked to one doctor from China's southern Guangdong province, who treated patients in China before dying from the disease.

"I think what we have here is a new virus." Professor Malik Peiris, the virology chief at the University of Hong Kong, told a news conference on Saturday.

Asked if it was a new strain or a mutated form of a known virus, he said: "I think it's a matter of degree. I think if it mutates far enough, then it becomes very different.

"And I think it's quite important for us to study in detail before we come to a conclusion as to what it is."

Scientists in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Germany and Canada had earlier identified viruses taken from patients as paramyxoviruses, a large family of microbes that includes the germs that cause measles, mumps and respiratory infections.

A STEP CLOSER TO CURE

There is currently no vaccine or specific cure for this strain of pneumonia. But Hong Kong doctors have been treating patients with ribavirin -- an anti-virus drug -- and steroids. Experience showed 70 per cent of patients would improve if treated in good time, Peiris said.

His research team isolated a virus from the lung of a patient and successfully grew or "cultured" it for study, They then designed the diagnostic test, which would tell a patient is infected with the disease within five to 14 days.

Peiris said early diagnosis enabled early treatment and therefore a greater chance of recovery.

"With the cell culture and further knowledge of the virus, it is anticipated that a more specific regimen will be developed soon and and developing a vaccine will be the long term goal," he said.

"Our research team will continue to determine the virological and genetic characteristics of this virus to design a better diagnostic test."

The WHO has issued its first global alert in a decade over the deadly disease, called severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Hong Kong officials said on Saturday one more patient had died, bringing the death toll there to seven. But the officials said they had not yet established whether the latest victim, an old man, had died of this illness.

Canada's most populous province, Ontario, said a man who had been considered a probable sufferer from the illness had died, bringing the likely Canadian death toll to three. Two new Canadian cases had been identifies, one probable and one possible.

In Vietnam, six more people were suspected of infection, bringing the total number to 58. The United States suspended official government travel to Vietnam because of the outbreak.

The number of cases in Singapore rose to 44. The government said all of them had been linked to the first three.

Hong Kong officials have stressed that the spread of the disease is slow. Most of the sick are health care workers and relatives with close contacts with the pneumonia patients.

The illness begins with a high fever, dry cough, chills, and severe breathing difficulties. A healthy and athletic adult can end up on a respirator within five days.

More evidence has emerged to show that the disease probably started in the south of mainland China, where over 300 have been treated and at least five have died.

Shigeru Omi, regional director for the Western Pacific Region of the WHO, told reporters the WHO would call a meeting with world experts in Hong Kong within "days or weeks" to discuss how to control the disease.

- REUTERS