WASHINGTON - A vaccine to prevent the new mystery disease SARS could be ready for tests on monkeys in little more than a year, but is still "years away" from human use, a top federal health official said Monday.

The United States is significantly ramping up efforts to monitor Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, called SARS, in hope of containing any future U.S. outbreak, and finding drugs that could treat it and a vaccine to prevent it, top U.S. and international health experts told a Senate committee Monday.

Health officials cited both hopeful and worrisome signs as the worldwide case count for the disease soared to 2,608, with 98 deaths, the World Health Organization reported Monday. The United States has 148 suspected cases and no deaths; only one U.S. victim has required a ventilator to help breathing, and that person is improving.

One promising sign is that the likely cause of the killer disease can grow easily in labs. It is a new member of the coronavirus family, which includes the virus that causes human colds. Lab cultivation would allow researchers to test possible treatments for use in first-generation vaccines, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

Existing animal vaccines for related viruses suggest the same process can probably be followed for SARS, Fauci said.

However, creating a safe human vaccine is time-consuming. Drug treatments are likely to be ready before a human SARS vaccine, Fauci said. Scientists from around the world will meet at NIAID late this week to coordinate efforts on vaccines and treatments.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is dusting off plans for fighting a super-flu pandemic - such as shutting down infected hospitals and schools - just in case SARS gets significantly worse here, CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding told senators.

"There is much more we can do if we need to," Gerberding said. "We're not at a point where we're anywhere near that."

SARS has hit Asia hardest, starting in the Chinese province of Guangdong in November, then spreading to Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam and Canada. Gerberding said 140 of the148 U.S. victims had traveled recently in Asia.

Elsewhere "this disease has spread very rapidly around the world, and continues to transmit from person to person," said Dr. David Heymann, director of the World Health Organization's communicable diseases office.

The Chinese government, after initially denying a problem, is now cooperating with international efforts to contain SARS from spreading, he said.

"If these measures had been taken in November, perhaps the disease would not have spread," Heymann told senators.