More suspected SARs cases:
China Reports Four New Suspected SARS Cases
Sun 25 April, 2004 12:40
By Tamora Vidaillet
BEIJING (Reuters) - Four new suspected cases of the potentially deadly SARS disease have been reported in the Chinese capital, the health ministry said Sunday, after the first reported death from the virus since a major outbreak last year.
No new suspected or confirmed cases of the flu-like illness that killed hundreds of people worldwide last year were reported in other provinces, but 337 people were under medical observation in Beijing, it said in the statement.
One Chinese woman from eastern Anhui province suspected of having SARS died on April 19. China has confirmed two other women contracted the virus in a chain of infection believed to have spread from a research laboratory in Beijing.
The woman died after taking care of her daughter, a medical student surnamed Song, who is believed to have caught the virus in March while working at the Chinese National Institute of Virology in Beijing, engaged in research involving the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus.
The death was the first suspected of being tied to SARS since last year's outbreak that killed more than 800 people.
The second confirmed SARS victim, a 20-year-old nurse surnamed Li, cared for Song in a Beijing hospital earlier this month, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
Li and Song were in stable condition in hospitals in Anhui and Beijing, Xinhua said.
The health ministry said the four new suspected cases included Li's parents, aunt and a patient who had shared a hospital room with Li when doctors suspected a simple case of pneumonia.
Until the announcement, only the woman who died and a male researcher who had worked in the same laboratory in Beijing, surnamed Yang, had been suspected cases.
Some 133 people who had had contacts with Song had not shown any fever symptoms, the ministry said, without elaborating.
HEIGHTENED ALERT
SARS spread alarm across the world last year and had a serious economic impact throughout Asia as tourism and investment were both hard hit.
Fearing a spread, China has stepped up surveillance of passengers for SARS ahead of a week-long holiday starting May 1, when millions of people are expected to travel by air or rail.
Railway stations and airports have been ordered to check the temperatures of all passengers from the capital, Beijing, and Anhui province, where the latest cases were reported.
The Labor Day "Golden Week," a break for travel and family reunions during which an estimated 120 million trips might be made in and out of Beijing alone, was cut short last year during the peak of the worldwide SARS outbreak for fear of spreading the disease.
China had publicized the numbers of trains taken by Song in journeys to and from Beijing so passengers could seek health checks, Xinhua said.
The government had sent investigators to more than five provinces including southern Guangdong, where SARS emerged in late 2002, central Hubei and northeastern Jilin and Heilongjiang to check on security at SARS laboratories, China Central Televison said.
The Geneva-based World Health Organization said Friday it was preparing to send a lab team to China to help determine the cause of the latest outbreak.
Australian health authorities have been put on alert for any possible cases of the flu-like virus SARS in people arriving from China, officials said Sunday.
reuters.co.uk |
