No evidence that SARS treatments were effective

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researcher have found no evidence that any of the SARS treatments given to patients infected in the 2002-2003 worldwide outbreak were effective, according to a report released Tuesday that illustrates how difficult it is to battle newly emerging viruses.

Their systematic review of all the studies done on the 2003 SARS epidemic found no evidence that antivirals, steroids or other therapies helped patients. A few suggested they caused harm.

"Despite an extensive literature reporting on SARS treatments, it was not possible to determine whether treatments benefited patients during the SARS outbreak," the researchers said in the online journal Public Library of Science-Medicine.

"Some may have been harmful."

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) first broke out in China in 2002 and spread around the world in 2003, transmitted mainly by airline travelers and spread within hospitals.

It infected more than 8,000 people and killed 774 before it was brought under control.

The infection was caused by a virus never seen before in people, named the SARS coronavirus. Some animals are also affected and it may have spread to people from exotic live animals sold for food.

Patients coughed and wheezed violently while ill with SARS, and desperate doctors tried a variety of treatments.

Not many drugs exist to treat viruses, so most of the known antivirals, including drugs that treat AIDS, hepatitis and influenza, were tried.

The World Health Organization set up an International SARS Treatment Study Group, which recommended a systematic review of potential SARS treatments. Lauren Stockman of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and colleagues in the United States and Britain conducted the review. They also studied experiments done in the laboratory and with acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Most studies on the use of steroids to reduce inflammation were inconclusive and four found that the treatment possibly caused harm, the researchers reported. Some SARS survivors have been permanently disabled by the illness, treatment or both.

The researchers said it was difficult to do the study, as there was no accepted treatment for SARS and no easy test for the virus. Doctors and nurses were struggling to save patients' lives, not determine which treatment might be the best.

If there is another outbreak of SARS or some other new virus, the group recommended coordinated efforts from the beginning to assess which treatment works best.