EXCLUSIVE: THE daughter of a teacher at Stonar School near Melksham is helping to find a cure for a killer disease which is sweeping the world.

Dr Rebecca Devon, 32, is playing her part in the most intensive and systematic search for ways to treat the deadly Sars virus.

Working from a laboratory in Vancouver, Canada, she is examining the genetic make-up of the virus in a desperate bid to find quick answers to stop the spiralling death count.

So far, the disease has killed at least 490 people and more than 6,900 have been infected, with new cases reported every day.

Dr Devon's mother, Elizabeth, 58, an information computer technology and geology teacher at the west Wiltshire school, said her daughter has told her scientists have made big steps into understanding more about the virus.

"They are making progress but it is difficult because it is very complex, adapting and mutating quickly," she said.

"It takes ages and is all about trial and error, mostly error, but a breakthrough comes occasionally."

Living in Canada for the past four years, Dr Devon usually works on research into motor neurone disease, but because the outbreak of Sars caused widespread panic, she has been drafted in to help with the round-the-clock search for a cure.

Her mother, who lives with husband, Martin, at Middle Hill, Box, admits that when there was an outbreak of the killer virus in Toronto, she became increasingly worried about the safety of her daughter.

"I was concerned because she was in Canada and not too far away from Asia," said Mrs Devon. "But it is exciting that she is involved in helping to find a cure.

"I have been keeping in regular contact with her she phones all the time and we keep in touch by email."

Due to the sensitivity of the research, Dr Devon is unable to talk to the Wiltshire Times, but this week scientists from an Army biodefence lab in America announced the first strong evidence that medicine will eventually defeat the Sars virus.

Concentrating on antiviral drugs already on the market, they are hoping to find something that will quickly help infected people.

Most of the medicines have failed so far, but one category shows promise the natural infection-fighting protein interferon.

Interferon the chemical cousin of the medicines that keeps AIDS in check can stop the Sars virus.

Since the outbreak there have been six confirmed cases of Sars in the UK, but no deaths. Nobody has been diagnosed with Sars in Wiltshire but GPs have been told to be on the lookout for signs of the disease, which include a high temperature, dry coughs and breathing difficulties.

The World Health Organisation says the incubation period for the disease is 10 days and estimate that anybody who contracts the virus has a 0 to 50 per cent chance of dying, depending on their age.