A human trial of a large-scale experimental AIDS vaccine has been cancelled following advice by a top scientist that it was unlikely to give useful results, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said Thursday.

The vaccine trial, similar to a failed Merck and Co. product, was developed by the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. In a study called PAVE 100, the agency planned to include 2,400 men in the United States

American researchers said that the two field tests of an HIV/AIDS vaccine failed to explore its safety and efficacy on volunteers but may have a chance of being infected by the disease.

Both tests were stopped last September and seven other trials of similarly created AIDS have been either sopped or postponed indefinitely

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today cleared for marketing a test that simultaneously detects and identifies 12 specific respiratory viruses.

The test, called the xTAG Respiratory Viral Panel, is the first test for the detection and differentiation of influenza A subtypes H1 and H3. Influenza A is the most severe form of influenza for humans, and has been the cause of major epidemics. The new panel is also the first test for human metapneumovirus (hMPV), newly identified in 2001

A new strain of virus was identified by doctors, who warned that it caused minor symptoms such as the common cold, but have in some cases ended in death.

They added that the virus targets healthy Americans, which is unlike the usual patterns of other respiratory infections

A strain of the adenovirus, which is a mutated version of a common cold virus, has caused 10 deaths in the last 18 months, U.S. health officials said Thursday.

The virus, which can cause severe and sometimes fatal lung disease, has caused at least 140 illnesses in New York, Oregon, Washington and Texas, according to a report issued Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)