China has approved for emergency use the world's first drug designed to save patients suffering from life-threatening forms of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), state media said on Monday. The human anti-SARS immunoglobin was developed from SARS antibodies separated from the blood plasma of recovered SARS patients, China News Service said. The immunoglobin was approved only for use in cases where a patient was in danger of dying from SARS, the agency said. The SARS virus was first discovered in southern China in late 2002. It quickly spread to other Asian countries and around the world, killing nearly 800 people and infecting about 8,000 others. World Health Organization experts have worked with Chinese scientists on the development of a SARS vaccine, with first-phase clinical tests already under way. But WHO has warned that development of a reliable SARS vaccine may take several years.
