| A scientific panel convened by the
World Health organization recommended guidelines on Friday for doctors
conducting clinical studies of SARS patients. The panel urged doctors to apply
the guidelines in analyzing the masses of potentially useful information about
various therapies that were collected in this year’s epidemic. Much of that
information has not been published or analyzed. "It is a matter of urgency to get better analysis and review," said Dr. Simon Mardel, a WHO official who led the two-day meeting that ended on Friday. He said thousands of potential therapies and compounds had been tested so far as researchers try to determine treatments for SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. "We recognize that having no treatment for SARS is hindering our ability to control an epidemic in so many ways." He said. In the epidemic earlier this year, various treatments, like drugs to fight the virus or strengthen the immune system, as well as traditional Chinese medicine, were delivered under emergency conditions, in widely different settings and countries to patients suffering from varying stages of the illness. Those conditions--generally without standardized measurements or controlled situations-- have made it hard to interpret results. Standard supportive therapy like nursing, and in severe cases the use of mechanical respirators (呼吸器) to help patients breathe, is the mainstay (主要支持) of SARS care, and helped many patients survive. But doctors still do not know how best to treat SARS patients who have breathing difficulties, Dr. Mardel said. One method is invasive ventilation. A second method involves blowing oxygen into the lungs through a mask. Both carry the risk of transmitting the virus to hospital employees. Without proper analysis, the panel was unable to say definitively which treatment worked best, or which caused the most harm. "There is a lack of shared information," Dr. Mardel said, noting that a lot of data have not been published. The panel also agreed on guidelines that would allow doctors to conduct quick and safe clinical trials, a process that generally takes years to complete. The World Health organization, a United Nations agency did not release the guidelines. Dr. Mardel said they were flexible because no one knew where, when and in what setting SARS would return. Experts in many countries have already listed the treatments they want to test, and the health agency is leaving these decisions to individual nations. |