BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhuanet) No new SARS cases reported in past 24 hours China reported no new suspected or diagnosed SARS cases for the 24 hours from 10 am Sunday to 10 am Monday, the Chinese Health Ministry said Monday. The ministry said in its daily SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) surveillance report that the diagnosed SARS patient in Beijing, surnamed Li, is in relatively stable condition and has had a normal temperature for 10 straight days. The five suspected SARS patients in Beijing are now receiving medical treatment at Beijing Ditan Hospital, the ministry said. The SARS patient in Anhui Province, surnamed Song, is also in stable condition and none of the people who had close contact with her have shown abnormal symptoms so far. In addition, the ministry said that an investigation has been carried out in hospitals at and above the county level on the death and pneumonia cases with no clear causes that have occurred since March 20. "So far, no cases were found to be suspicious and related with SARS," ministry officials said. Meanwhile, the Chinese Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), whose Institute of Virology has been sealed and isolated since April 23 due to possible laboratory infection, reported that no staff under quarantine have shown any strange symptoms at this point. The Beijing-based CDC said it has listed all the people who had been to the Virology Institute since March 20 and investigations to tracing those people are still being carried out. A senior official with the World Health Organization (WHO) Monday voiced appreciation over China's quick and serious response to deal with the reappearance of SARS cases in Anhui and Beijing since April 22. Shigeru Omi, director of the WHO's Western Pacific Regional Office based in Manila, told Xinhua in a seminar with foreign press that the organization is satisfied with the Chinese Government's quick response and information sharing with the domestic public and international community in this matter. "The Chinese Government has taken serious measures to address (SARS) this time such as identifying passengers who took the same train (with the virus carrier) and share the information with the public and the WHO," Omi said. He said that he believes China would overcome the SARS situation as soon as possible, since the linkage among the diagnosed patients and suspects has been traced and the surveillance and prevention system, which the Chinese Government had developed to address SARS crisis last year, have been put in practice. Omi noted that there has no need to be panic so far because compared with the crisis last year, "the infectors are still small in amount and will not result in an instant transmission." It is the third time that SARS has returned since the big crisis last year. Two lab researchers were separately infected with the virus in Singapore and China's Taiwan in September and December.

HEFEI, April 27 (Xinhuanet) SARS patient in Anhui province in stable condition The SARS patient in east China's Anhui Province, surnamed Song, is now in stable condition, Zhu Qixing, head of the No.1 Hospital affiliated to the Anhui University of Medical Sciences, in an interview with Xinhua on Tuesday. "At this stage Song's disease is no longer infectious," said Zhu. However, Zhu said, doctors would continue to tighten monitoring over and medical treatment on Song until she fully recovers. Song, aged 26, who is still receiving medical treatment at the hospital's ICU, last Saturday stopped taking hormone and medicine to raise blood pressure, and her temperature has returned to normal, according to Zhu. "Song's temperature at 9 a.m. on Tuesday was 36 degrees Celsius.She is in a fine mood and can do some exercises out of bed," said Zhu. The Chinese Ministry of Health announced two SARS cases in Anhui last Friday afternoon. The other SARS patient in Anhui was Song's mother, who died on April 19. Song, who does her postgraduate courses with the Anhui University of Medical Sciences, studied at a Beijing-based research institute of virus diseases under the Chinese Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) from March 7 to 22. On March 23, Song went back to Hefei, capital of Anhui Province, by train and then returned to Beijing by train after complaining of fever on March 25. Later, she went to see doctors in Beijing and Huainan City of Anhui Province. On April 4, she was transferred to the No. 1 Hospital under the Anhui University of Medical Sciences for further treatment.

GUANGZHOU, 12 Jan 2004 (Xinhuanet) A 35-year-old man was confirmed Monday afternoon as the Chinese mainland's third suspected SARS case, according to the Guangdong Provincial Health Department. The patient now is receiving treatment at the No. 8 People's Hospital of Guangzhou after being transferred from the Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital on Jan. 9. The newly-confirmed suspected SARS patient reported symptoms of fever on Dec. 31 of 2003 and was sent to the Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital on Jan. 6. Doctors said that the patient was under recovery and was expected to leave the hospital in a few days. On Jan. 8, a 20-year-old restaurant waitress was confirmed to be a suspected SARS case in Guangzhou. The waitress from central Henan Province reported symptoms of fever on Dec. 26, 2003 and now, she is now under quarantine and receiving treatment in the Guangzhou No. 8 People's Hospital. The temperature of the waitress has remained normal and authorities have stepped up protective measures for the medical staff, local health officials said. Medical experts on SARS in Guangdong had begun disinfection of the patient's living environment and 48 people who had close contact with the waitress have been quarantined and found no symptoms of fever so far, they said. Meanwhile, another 52 people who had contact with the suspected SARS case were also under close medical observation. The 32-year-old freelance TV worker in Guangdong who was the first confirmed SARS patient in China's mainland after the spring outbreak of the epidemic in 2003, left the hospital on Jan. 8.

BEIJING, 8 Jan 2004 (Xinhuanet) The second suspected SARS case was reported Wednesday in Guangzhou and the patient has been quarantined in the No. 8 People's Hospital of Guangdong, said a report on the Nanfang Daily. "A 20-year-old female restaurant employee has been diagnosed as a suspected SARS patient by a group of experts in Guangzhou Wednesday," according to the report. The patient is from central China's Henan province. She was sent to the Zhenggu Hospital in Guangzhou's Yuexiu Disctrict after having a fever from December 26, 2003, according to the newspaper. The patient was exposed to the public for the first time by authorities on January 5. Earlier in Hong Kong, Guangzhou Respiratory Disease Research Institute Director Zhong Nanshan said the patient had tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) antibody on her first test. But Zhong added that more tests were to be conducted on the 20-year-old patient to decide whether she was in fact a suspected case or not. The patient has had no fever for eight consecutive days," said Guangzhou Municipal Centre of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Deputy Director Wang Ming. "Our treatment for her has been exactly the same as treating a suspected case," Xu said. Some 48 people have been quarantined and 52 people put under medical observation for having been in contact with the suspected SARS patient. None of them has developed a fever or shown other symptoms of the deadly virus. "What we have done is only for a perfectly safe purpose so as to avoid even the slightest possibility of another outbreak of the virus," said Xu Ruiheng, Guangdong Provincial CDC deputy director. The 32-year-old television producer, the only confirmed SARS case contracted out of laboratory since last July, is expected to be discharged from hospital today. Only one person of the 81 people believed to be in contact with him is still under medical observation. (China Daily)

BEIJING, Sept. 19 2003 (Xinhuanet) China's Ministry of Health (MOH) resumed its daily public reporting on severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) on the Chinese mainland on Friday. A spokesman for the ministry announced that there were no new clinically confirmed or suspected SARS cases in the 24 hours from 10:00 a.m. Sept. 18. "There is no new SARS cases in the Chinese mainland according to reports from all localities," the spokesman said. The last two SARS patients on the Chinese mainland were discharged from hospital on Aug. 16. Since then, there have been no new cases and the MOH suspended daily reporting later. "China's health system, however, has been maintaining vigilance against SARS and practicing daily reporting, including zero reporting," the MOH spokesman said. The resumption of the daily reporting to the public was in response to public inquiries on the latest situation, the spokesman said. Different areas had also worked out emergency plans to curb SARS and planned to have emergency drills before Sept. 30... Henk Bekedam, the World Health Organization (WHO) representative in China, told Xinhua he was glad to see that the MOH resumed reporting on SARS to the public on a regular basis. "We have discussed the issue with the MOH and are glad that they are informing the public on a regular basis of the country's surveillance and monitoring system on the SARS epidemic," he said. Bob Dietz, spokesman for the WHO in China, said the resumption of the daily reporting indicated how seriously the Chinese government was dealing with SARS. "We rely on China's report," he said.

Standard Zero Cases Report BEIJING, Sept. 22 (Xinhuanet) The Chinese Ministry of Health reported no SARS cases from 10:00 a.m. Sunday to 10:00 a.m. Monday on the Chinese mainland.There has been neither clinically confirmed nor suspected SARS patients on the mainland since the ministry resumed daily reporting on the epidemic disease on Sept. 19.

BEIJING 12 Sep (Xinhuanet) Chinese capital sets up alert system against SARS

MANILA, Sept. 8 (Xinhuanet) World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Lee Jong-wook called here Monday for enhanced surveillance to deal with a possible recurrence of SARS. "We have to prepare on the assumption that this (SARS) will come back," Lee said in a speech at the opening of the 54th session of the WHO regional committee for the Western Pacific.
"Together, we won this battle," he said, but quickly adding that no one can predict what will happen later this year. "Our challenge now is to enhance surveillance networks that will detect and deal with SARS if it does come back."

SINGAPORE, Sept. 8 (Xinhuanet) A male patient at Singapore General Hospital has been tested positive for the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) disease, local press reported on Monday. The patient has been moved to Tan Tock Seng Hospital - the frontline hospital in the fight against SARS, said Channelnewsasia, a local English language TV station, on its website. But several more tests are being done to confirm this preliminary diagnosis, said the report. In the past, an initial positive result has sometimes proven to be a false alarm, it added. Singapore's Health Ministry was quoted by Channelasia as saying on Monday that the patient had been isolated at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, and contact tracing has begun. The ministry believes this is an isolated case. The report said that Singapore's hospitals are also stepping uptheir precautions. Affected wards at Singapore General Hospital have been closed to visitors. If this suspect case is confirmed, it will be Singapore's first SARS case since early May. The outbreak of the SARS disease in early March infected over 200 people in Singapore, claiming 32 lives. The city-state was declared SARS-free in late May.

New York, May 18 2004 HUMAN TRANSMISSION OF SARS IN LATEST CASES BROKEN, UN HEALTH AGENCY SAYS The United Nations health agency declared today that the chain of human-to-human transmission in the latest SARS outbreak in China appeared to have been broken, but warned that serious concerns remained over safety procedures at the institute where research using live and inactivated virus was carried out. The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was now more than three weeks since the last case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome was placed in isolation, among a cluster of eight cases linked to the National Institute of Virology in Beijing as the likely source. It urged all Member States to review biosafety practices of institutions and laboratories working with the SARS coronavirus. In March a 26-year-old laboratory researcher came down with the newly emergent disease, which last year killed 774 people and infected more than 8,000 worldwide, the vast majority of them in China. The researcher's mother, who cared for her, died and a nurse fell ill. The other cases were linked to these patients or the institute, where a second researcher became ill. WHO experts and the Chinese authorities are still trying to determine the exact cause of the outbreak, and preliminary findings have yet to identify a single infectious source or single procedural error at the Institute. It is conceivable that an exact answer may never be determined, WHO said. Neither researcher is known to have directly conducted experiments using live SARS virus, but WHO said investigators have serious concerns about biosafety procedures at the Institute, including how and where procedures using the were carried out and how and where the samples were stored. During and after the SARS outbreak of 2003, a large number of specimens were collected from possible human cases, animals and the environment. These specimens, which may contain live virus, are still kept in various laboratories around the world.

New York, Apr 26 2004 WHO TEAM TRAVELS TO BEIJING TO HELP INVESTIGATE SOURCE OF SARS The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today is sending the first members of an international team to help investigate the source of cases of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) recently reported in Beijing and the eastern province of Anhui, which have now doubled to eight, following a request of China's Health Ministry. The team, which is expected to begin work Wednesday, will include experts in epidemiology, virology, infection control, and laboratory biosafety, WHO said in a news release. Results of investigations so far point to laboratory research at the National Institute of Virology in Beijing as the likely source of the outbreak. The institute has been engaged in research with the SARS coronavirus, including the development of a vaccine. Two of the recently reported cases were conducting research at the laboratory: a 26-year-old female postgraduate student from Anhui Province, and a 31-year-old man. The dates of symptom onset in the two cases are widely separated (23 days), suggesting that more than one opportunity for exposure may have occurred in the laboratory from mid-March through early April. Authorities have closed the virology institute and placed its more than 200 employees under medical observation. Numerous environmental samples from the laboratory have been taken to help assess possible sources of contamination, and these samples will be shared with WHO. WHO said it was concerned about additional opportunities for exposure that may have already occurred. Some patients were treated or assessed in several different hospitals before a suspicion of SARS led to the introduction of adequate precautionary measures, including isolation of patients and strict procedures for infection control. One patient twice travelled a long distance by train within China while symptomatic. Since 22 April, China has reported that eight persons have been clinically diagnosed as SARS cases or are under investigation for possible SARS infection. Six of these are in Beijing and two, including the single fatality, are in Anhui. As of today, close to 1,000 contacts of these cases are under medical observation, including 640 in Beijing and 353 in Anhui. The most recent cases, announced yesterday, are four close contacts of a 20-year-old nurse who treated the Anhui student at a Beijing hospital. The cases - all in Beijing - are currently under investigation. In addition, health authorities have reported that two doctors who treated the postgraduate student during her hospitalization in Hefai, Anhui, have developed fever. A person in close contact with one of the doctors has also developed fever. To date, all diagnosed cases and cases under investigation have been linked to chains of transmission involving close personal contact with an identified case. There is no evidence of wider transmission in the community. According to WHO guidelines for the global surveillance of SARS, classification as a confirmed case at the start of an outbreak requires independent verification of results by an external international reference laboratory. Such procedures are considered necessary in view of the implications that confirmed SARS cases can have for international public health.

New York, Apr 23 2004 SARS SITUATION IN CHINA POTENTIALLY SERIOUS WITH POSSIBLE NEW CLUSTER - WHO The United Nations health agency said today the SARS situation in China is considered potentially serious because of the multiple opportunities for exposure by hundreds of potential contacts after four possible cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - including one death - were reported in the last two days. The World Health Organization is working closely with Chinese health authorities to confirm the status and full extent of this apparently linked cluster, and to prevent further spread of the viral disease, which last year killed 774 people and infected more than 8,000 worldwide, the vast majority of them in China. To date, more than 300 contacts of the new cases have been identified and placed under medical observation. In line with its own definitions, WHO has classified two of the cases as probable SARS with the other two remaining under investigation. But Chinese authorities have diagnosed two as clinically confirmed - a 20-year-old nurse in Beijing who remains in intensive care, and a 26-year-old laboratory researcher from Anhui province, who in March worked at the Chinese National Institute of Virology in Beijing where SARS research is known to be underway. The researcher was attended in a Beijing hospital by the nurse. Her mother also provided bedside care, became ill in Anhui on 8 April and died on 19 April. Her clinical symptoms were compatible with SARS, and health authorities have retrospectively diagnosed her as a suspected SARS case. The fourth person, a 31-year-old laboratory researcher who also worked at the virology institute, developed symptoms on 17 April and was hospitalized in isolation on 22 April. The health authorities have diagnosed him as a suspected SARS case. According to WHO guidelines, classification as a confirmed case requires independent verification of results by an external international reference laboratory. Such procedures are considered necessary in view of the implications that confirmed SARS cases can have for international public health.

BEIJING 13 Jan 2004 (AFX-ASIA) Travel agencies in Beijing have cancelled all tours to southern Guangdong province due to SARS, state media said Tuesday, as national statistics showed last year's outbreak put a big dent in the industry. Tours to the Guangdong capital of Guangzhou as well as the Guangdong cities of Shenzhen and Zhuhai and other areas of the province have been brought to a halt due to three recent cases, the Beijing Times said. The cancellations followed China's confirmation since last week of one confirmed SARS case and two suspected cases in Guangdong, where an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome first surfaced in Nov 2002. Guangdong is normally a popular tourist destination during the annual week-long Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, holiday, which this year begins on Jan 22. Guangdong officials have urged the public not to panic, saying the province's public health system is much better prepared to prevent the spread of SARS now compared to last year. While the number of cases is few and the patients did not seem to have infected anyone else, they have raised worries about a re-emergence of SARS.

UN HEALTH AGENCY SENDS TEAM TO CHINA TO PROBE SARS CASE
UN News, New York, 8 Jan 2004 The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today dispatched a team of experts to Guangzhou, China, to investigate a case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The six-person group will join with counterparts from China's Ministry of Health to look into the recent occurrence of a confirmed case of SARS in the city. The agency said the joint mission's work will centre around the potential human, animal and environmental sources of the SARS infection.The WHO team will be headed by Dr. Robert Breiman, an epidemiologist from the United States who specializes in emerging infectious diseases. On Monday, the agency confirmed that a 32-year-old television producer had contracted the potentially fatal illness. He was reported to be in stable condition, and the virus did not appear to be spreading.

CHINA HAS CONFIRMED CASE OF SARS, UN HEALTH AGENCY SAYS
UN News, New York, 5 Jan 2004 A man in the southern Guangdong Province of China has Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the United Nations lead health agency said today after tests confirmed diagnosis of the disease, which does not appear to be spreading. The male patient, a 32-year-old television producer, is said to be improving and in stable condition, according to Dr. Julie Hall, Communicable Disease Surveillance and Response Coordinator for the World Health Organization in China. "The contacts that he has had have been traced and the 81 people that have been identified have been followed up and they are all said to be well," she said in an interview with UN Radio. "So at this moment in time in China we have one confirmed case of SARS; however [it] has been isolated and as far as we can tell there is no ongoing transmission to human beings." Dr. Hall added it was unclear how the man had contracted the virus and that further investigation was required to determine the source of the flu-like illness. In two previous instances, SARS was contracted by laboratory workers in Taiwan, Province of China and in Singapore. By contrast, WHO said today the new Guangdong case did not stem from a lab. "What these cases show, though, are the two potential sources of the virus that WHO has warned against - the lab and the potentially animal source of the virus - and we need to be sure we are protected from these sources of the virus and that we work towards eliminating the virus as a public health threat," she said. Asked about the decision by the Cantonese health bureau to slaughter more than 10,000 civet cats, Dr. Hall noted that WHO has confirmed from the beginning of the outbreak that the virus may have originated from an animal and then jumped to human beings. However, "there is no evidence that civets carry SARS to human beings, nor do we know the full range of animals capable of carrying and transmitting the virus," she stressed. "We are also concerned that the process itself may entail some risk to those who are carrying SARS around.so WHO is saying to the Government of China, 'Please undertake a risk assessment before you do this, look at the risks associated with these animals, are they alive, look at measures which can be taken to limit the contact between animals and human beings, but also study carefully the risk associated with these animals and ensure that those who do these are protected.'"

Beijing 18 Oct (SCMP) Up to half the health workers in Beijing hospitals who recovered from Sars have developed a rare, degenerative bone disease. Avascular necrosis could have been caused by the heavy use of steroids in treating Sars. The worst affected patient has a collapsed hip bone. Xu Lin, director of orthopaedics at the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, said between a third and a half of staff members examined at several hospitals had avascular necrosis. Dr Xu would not estimate how many former Sars patients were suffering from avascular necrosis, saying the study had only been done at a few hospitals. He plans to expand the research to include all former Sars patients in Beijing. Dr Xu is the head of a government-backed project to study the side effects of Sars treatments on bones. He has been asked to suggest alternative remedies combining western and traditional Chinese medicine. His two-year research project is also aimed at establishing recommended drug dosages for treating Sars. There was no information available yesterday as to what quantities of steroids were administered to the patients who were now suffering from the bone disease. Robert Dietz, spokesman for the World Health Organisation in Beijing, said the organisation was aware of the problem. "That is why we want to find ways to help people prevent Sars," he said.

BEIJING 1 Oct (AP) The former Beijing mayor, fired amid accusations his administration mishandled the SARS outbreak, has been named to head a multibillion-dollar water project, an official news agency reported Wednesday. The rehabilitation of Meng Xuenong lent support to suggestions that his dismissal in April was largely symbolic. Meng had been mayor for only three months when he was fired in April as the government, criticized for its slow response to severe acute respiratory syndrome, launched a massive anti-disease effort. On Monday, Meng was named deputy director of an office under China's Cabinet overseeing the South-North Water Diversion Project, the China News Service reported on its Web site. When Meng was fired as mayor, state media said Chinese leaders accused the Beijing city government of letting the disease spread. The Chinese capital became one of the hardest-hit cities in the world, with 193 deaths and more than 2,500 people sickened before the disease ebbed in June.

New York, Sep 9 (UN News) The UN World Health Organization (WHO) today said speculation concerning the discovery of a possible new case of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Singapore could not be confirmed due to conflicting medical analyses. The case involved a 27-year-old medical student in Singapore who was working in a laboratory studying the SARS virus. He was hospitalized with a high fever, but his temperature returned to normal. "The information at this point was conflicting," a spokesperson for WHO, Fadela Chaib, said at a press briefing in Geneva. "X-rays did not show that he had developed an atypical pneumonia; however other analysts believed that it might be a case of SARS." WHO is waiting for the results of an independent laboratory on whether this had been a case of SARS and will continue to monitor the situation, Ms. Chaib said.

Beijing, Sep 3 (PTI) China on Wednesday quashed rumours that the deadly SARS epidemic has resurfaced in the country, which was the epicentre of the disease earlier this year. "No suspected SARS case has reappeared in the mainland of China since August 16 this year," the Chinese Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed said here. The official Xinhua news agency quoted a ministry official as saying that since August 16, when the last two sars patients in the mainland of china were discharged from hospital, there has been neither confirmed SARS cases nor suspected ones. According to the official, though the ministry no longer issues daily public information releases as it did during the epidemic period, the daily report mechanism has been maintained within the health departments at all levels. so far, no single sars case has been reported. The Beijing office of the world health organisation (WHO) recently sent a letter to the ministry, requesting clarification of hearsay that suspected sars cases have reappeared in Beijing, Xinhua said. The ministry then confirmed with the local health departments that no such case has shown up so far, the report said. According to the official, the ministry has mapped out a working plan for the prevention of SARS for 2003 and 2004. If the epidemic reappears, the ministry and local health departments will release relevant and timely information to the public in accordance with relative laws on the prevention of infectious diseases and related regulations.