Chicago: Terror drill brings mock illness outbreak

A national bioterrorism drill mirrored real life Tuesday as coughing, sneezing patients trooped into Chicago-area emergency rooms acting out symptoms of a mystery SARS-like illness.

Mock patients were fitted with surgical masks and whisked away on gurneys and in wheelchairs as part of the five-day drill that began Monday in Seattle with the simulated detonation of a radioactive “dirty bomb.”

The drill, aimed at testing the readiness of local, state and federal authorities, is the nation’s first large-scale counterterrorism exercise since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

The exercises involve more than 8,500 people from 100 federal, state and local agencies, the Red Cross and the Canadian government.

Washington, D.C.: MADD wants more money spent on auto safety

Frustrated at the rise in alcohol-related traffic deaths, Mothers Against Drunk Driving is urging Congress to double its spending on auto safety to $1 billion each year.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, alcohol-related deaths rose 3 percent to 17,970 in 2002. MADD wants Congress to nearly double the amount spent on auto safety each year, from $522 million to $1 billion.

MADD chose today as the campaign launch to mark the 15th anniversary of the deadliest drunken-driving accident in U.S. history. On May 14, 1988, a drunken driver with a 0.24 blood-alcohol level crashed into a bus in Kentucky, killing 27 people and injuring 30.

Seattle: HIV-prevention group says funding inadequate

Worldwide spending to prevent new infections by the AIDS virus should be increased by $3.8 billion by 2005, an advocacy group recommended Tuesday.

The report by the Global HIV Prevention Working Group said fewer than one in five people at risk of being infected by HIV worldwide has access to prevention programs.

The group found that $1.9 billion was spent last year on HIV. But it said the U.N. AIDS agency has estimated that $5.7 billion will be needed by 2005, and $6.6 billion by 2007.

Last year, the disease killed 3.1 million people worldwide, and there were 5 million new infections.

Washington, D.C.: Modified cold virus drug may work against SARS

A drug being tested for treatment of the common cold possibly could be modified to become effective against SARS, according to a new study.

Virus researchers in Germany report that they have developed a model for the crystalline structure of a key protein used by the SARS virus to infect cells, an important step toward finding a drug that would combat the deadly pathogen.

In a study appearing this week in the journal Science, the researchers say their study suggests an experimental common cold drug called AG7088 may be able to keep the SARS virus from replicating.

AG7088 was developed by Pfizer Inc. and is currently in clinical trials for the treatment of rhinovirus, a pathogen that can cause colds.