BABIES born with no defence against infection could be given pioneering gene therapy in the North-East.

Last week, it was announced that gene therapy had been used by Great Ormond Street Hospital in London to "cure" Welsh toddler Rhys Evans.

Now doctors at Great Ormond Street's sister unit - Newcastle General Hospital's SCID (Severe Combined Immune Deficiency) Unit - say they would consider using the therapy in 12 months.

In a separate development, the Newcastle unit has referred one of its patients to the Necker Hospital for Sick Children in Paris, where doctors carried out the world's first gene therapy operation last year. The patient is being referred for diagnostic tests.

Doctors at the Newcastle unit were thrilled at the news that a medical team in London had successfully used the gene therapy technique on a SCID syndrome child in only the second successful operation of its kind.

But experts on Tyneside say most patients with SCID who are treated in London and Paris will continue to undergo bone marrow transplants until it is shown that gene therapy is the best form of treatment.

Dr Andrew Cant, director of the Newcastle SCID unit, said: "Once it is clear that the promising earlier results of gene therapy are sustained, we will be keen to ensure that appropriate patients are treated in this way."

However, he stressed that results from transplantation were very good and gene therapy should not be used just because it is new.

Therapy works by inserting a gene into bone marrow to stimulate the production of vital immune cells.

About 20 children with SCID syndrome receive bone marrow transplants at the Newcastle unit every year. The unit has six isolation "bubbles", in which children live to protect them from infection.