The National Institutes of Health will begin testing a vaccine to fight Severe Accute Respitory Syndrome or SARS on humans for the first time according to published reports.

The disease, which originated in China, was first diagnosed in 2002 and killed almost 800 people world wide before quarentines and travel restrictions brought stopped the spread of the disease.

Tests will begin on the vaccine with ten volunteers being monitored for 32 weeks after being given shots. The SARS vaccine contains a small piece of DNA that encodes a viral protein. The human immune system then produces proteins similar to the SARS virus which enables the body to produce a defense against the virus.

Scientists in China began testing humans for their version of a SARS vaccine May. This is the second set of tests being conducted on humans in an attempt to develop a reliable vaccine against SARS.