First effective treatment for SARS - Canada

Main Category: Flu / Cold / SARS
Article Date: 26 Dec 2003 - 0:00 PDT

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Canadian scientists have found what appears to be the first effective treatment for SARS, a 'profoundly' important advance should the rogue virus resurface.

Doctors watched in desperation during last winter's SARS outbreak as patients didn't respond to steroids, the standard treatment for the pneumonia-like infection.

In a study published in today's Journal of the American Medical Association, Canadian researchers report SARS patients given a combination of steroids and interferon, an antiviral drug used to treat hepatitis C, were less likely to end up in intensive care than patients treated with steroids alone. They required less oxygen support and their lung infections cleared up faster.

There were no side-effects to the treatment.

The finding could have implications not just for the treatment of SARS, but also for the West Nile virus and even influenza, says lead researcher Dr. Eleanor Fish.

'All measurements associated with (SARS) -- chest X-rays, how well their lungs were saturated with oxygen, the time patients required supplemental oxygen -- all improved significantly,' reports Fish, senior scientist and division head of the University Health Network at the Toronto General Research Institute.

The study was small, involving just 22 patients. 'But, with all due caution and humility, I think the implications are profound,' says Fish. Already, U.S. and Swiss government agencies are planning trials based on the Canadian treatment, which received attention at a major infectious diseases meeting in Chicago in September.

SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, killed 44 Toronto-area residents during the outbreak. Worldwide, 8,098 SARS cases and 774 SARS-related deaths had been reported as of late September, according to the World Health Organization.

Until now, doctors have resorted to the same antibiotics, corticosteroids and other drugs normally used to battle pneumonia, despite scant evidence they actually worked against SARS.

Moreover, some doctors worried that giving SARS patients steroids, which reduce lung inflammation by suppressing the immune system, would actually allow the deadly virus to take hold.

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