U.S. testing has begun, but a SARS vaccine is years away

Just two years after the discovery of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, clinical trials for a vaccine are underway in the United States.

SARS first broke out in China in November 2002 and had killed 774 worldwide by July 2003, according to the World Health Organization, before being brought under control.

The National Institutes of Health launched the first U.S. trial of a SARS vaccine in mid-December. The vaccine is being tested on 10 healthy volunteers who will be followed for 32 weeks. The study will focus on the vaccine’s safety and how well it boosts the immune system to produce antibodies against the SARS virus.

A human SARS vaccine is at least five or 10 years away from the market, says Dr. Gary Nabel, who led the development of the vaccine and directs the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Vaccine Research Center. Information: (866) 833-LIFE (833-5433).

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Meals on the fly

As more airlines offer buy-onboard meals, those who pay close attention to meals and mealtime intervals -- diabetics and pregnant women among them -- should be aware there might not be enough chow to go around.

Airlines stock varying amounts of buy-onboard options -- typically a snack box for $3 and a sandwich for $5 -- but rarely enough to feed an entire planeload, spokeswomen for several airlines say.

Typically, airline surveys find that not all passengers buy onboard, so carriers stock food accordingly. “About 40% of our passengers have been buying the buy-onboard meals we are testing on flights to and from Mexico,” said Caroline Boren, of Alaska Airlines.

Passengers traveling on Northwest Airlines’ flights that offer buy-onboard food are warned the food may run out, spokeswoman Mary Stanik said. “We announce at the beginning of the flight that we have it but in a limited amount.”

Chances of bigger supplies may be better if the program is new. “We will probably overstock in the beginning,” said Courtney Wallace, of American Airlines, which just launched a buy-onboard program. “Right now, there usually is enough for everyone on the flight,” she said.

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Check your vaccinations

Adult travelers should be up to date with routine childhood vaccinations, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

The risk for exposure to measles outside the U.S. can be high, as it is for mumps. Only 38% of countries mandate use of a mumps vaccine.

To learn which vaccines you may need, visit www.cdc.gov/nip/recs/adultschedule.htm, which is the CDC Web page that posts an immunization schedule for adults.

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Smoke-free airports

This month marks the 15-year anniversary of smoke-free domestic flights, but U.S. airports still have a ways to go before they are all smoke-free. Nearly 62% of U.S. airports are now smoke-free, says a report issued in late 2004 by the CDC, citing 2002 figures, the latest available.

To find out which airports are smoke-free, visit www.no-smoke.org, (click on “Smokefree Travel”), which has a partial list maintained by the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation, a Berkeley-based organization. To be included on the list, the facility must be smoke-free indoors, with no smoking allowed in airline clubs, passenger terminals and work areas that are not public.

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The Healthy Traveler appears every other week. Kathleen Doheny can be reached at kathleendoheny@earthlink.net.