China's top food and drug authority announced on Friday that it has approved the country's first vaccine for Ebola virus disease. This makes China the third country, after the United States and Russia, with vaccines available for use to combat the deadly infectious disease, the China Food and Drug Administration said. The vaccine, named recombinant Ebola virus disease vaccine (Adenovirus type 5 vector), is available in powder, and, compared with liquid vaccines in the other two countries, is more stable. This highlights its advantages in transportation and use in tropical areas such as Africa, it said. The most serious outbreak of the disease, which hit West Africa in 2014, caused at least 11,300 deaths, according to the administration. The CFDA approved the application for registration of the new drug on Thursday. The drug was jointly developed by the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in Beijing and CanSinoBio, a Chinese company in human vaccine development and production, according to the CFDA. The CFDA approved the application for clinical tests of the drug in February 2015, and received an application for registration for production of the drug in April, it said. The vaccine improves China's ability to prevent and control major public health threats and provides a new means for China to handle global disease epidemics effectively, it said. It will promote research and development of vaccines for major infectious diseases in China, the CFDA said. It demonstrates a major advance in China's ability in the technological innovation of biomedicine. CanSinoBio could not be reached by phone for comment on Friday. Li Lanjuan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor in infectious diseases at Zhejiang University, said the approval of the vaccine shows China has greatly increased its ability for research and development of vaccines. Clinical tests conducted on Africans in China showed the vaccine was safe and effective, said Li, who led the clinical tests at Zhejiang University in 2015. Clinical tests for the vaccine also were completed on 120 Chinese in Taizhou, Jiangsu province, in February 2015. Efforts to develop the Ebola vaccine started at the Academy of Military Medical Sciences more than seven years ago and the process accelerated with the outbreak of the disease in West Africa in 2014, according to a previous report by the news website caixin.com. The Ebola virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission. Mortality among those infected could reach 90 percent, according to the World Health Organization. There is yet no proven treatment available for the disease, but a range of potential treatments, including blood products, immunotherapies and drug therapies, are being evaluated, it said. customize silicone bracelets202mm to inchesthe wristband factoryrubber wristbands custom cheap
Air pollution with a high level of PM2.5 forms a haze of smog at Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong last year.Chan Longhei/ For China Daily A team of researchers in Hong Kong is working on an application that will draw on artificial intelligence and big data to guide people away from air pollution hot spots, as Sylvia Chang reports. With more than 1,700 deaths blamed on air pollution in the past year, Hong Kong is badly in need of help. It is on its way in the form of an air pollution map produced with artificial intelligence. However, it will take about five years for the application, designed by researchers at the University of Hong Kong, to emerge from the city's miasma of nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and ozone. The map, capable of producing real-time readings or predictive analysis, will reveal where concentrations of toxic emissions are, and where they are likely to go. The app will not solve the pollution problem but it will allow people to see what they are getting into, and let them know if it would be better to change their plans. The readings will show the concentration of pollutants right down to the level of the street they are on. Badly polluted air can make outdoor exercise a health hazard, because tiny particles 30 times smaller than a human hair, known as PM2.5, can find their way deep into the lungs. The app will allow someone training for a marathon, children with physical education classes scheduled and people suffering from asthma to check PM2.5 levels and stay away from high concentrations, or even postpone training or going out that day. According to the Hedley Environmental Index designed by the School of Public Health at the university, known as HKU, air pollution was responsible for about 1,780 deaths in Hong Kong in the past year. Like a smartwatch, the system will be able to track a person's fitness and activity level. But, more important, it will also read the air quality and even forecast it for the next hour or next day. That means it will be able to advise individuals about suitable activities based on both air quality and their personal health and fitness. Researchers say it will provide estimates of PM2.5 concentrations for any geographical area in Hong Kong, down to the hectare level. It's like weather reporting, on a real-time basis, to the street level, said Victor Li On-kwok, chair professor of information engineering at the university's Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, who is leading the team studying the system.
