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Friday, March 29, 2024

Coronavirus may be 'similar' to SARS: U.S. health official

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Coronavirus may be 'similar' to SARS: U.S. health official
Coronavirus may be 'similar' to SARS: U.S. health official

NIH's Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci tells Reuters the new coronavirus has characteristics that make it 'somewhat similar' to SARS and that a vaccine is being developed.

Gavino Garay reports.

The deadly Wuhan coronavirus that has killed at least 17 in the affected Chinese province and sickened hundreds more could behave similar to SARS, that's according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director Of The National Institutes Of Allergy And Infectious Diseases.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) DR. ANTHONY FAUCI DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES AT THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH, SAYING: "It's a coronavirus, it's likely going to act somewhat similar to SARS.

We don't know how much similar.

It has similarity in its genetic makeup... Each day goes by, we learn more, like just a little while ago we learned, we became very clear it's transmitted person to person." The CDC on Tuesday confirmed that a Washington state resident who had recently traveled to China did contract the virus, though officials in Washington say the risk of transmission is "low" and that patient is in isolation.

Fauci says the national institutes of health is working to develop a possible vaccine in case the virus does get out of hand.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) DR. ANTHONY FAUCI DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES AT THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH, SAYING: "The one that we're doing here at the NIH, we started a little a few days ago, as soon as we got the sequence, and we would imagine that we would have the material to go into early phase 1 safety testing in humans in approximately three months." Fauci said that that vaccine wouldn't be available until at least a year or two, or more...

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