Journalist 'possibly' has SARS
Friday, January 2, 2004 Posted: 0443 GMT (12:43 PM HKT)
All the people who were in contact with the patient are expected to finish medical observation within a week.
BEIJING, China -- Initial results of gene sequencing by Chinese microbiologists show that a suspected SARS case in southern China "may possibly" be severe acute respiratory syndrome, the state media reported.
World Health Organization officials have said in recent days that some tests on the 32 year old television producer from Guangdong came back positive while others were negative.
WHO spokesman Roy Wadia was not immediately available to comment on Friday's report.
The male patient remains isolated in hospital in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong, after showing SARS-like symptoms earlier this month.
The freelance journalist developed a fever on December 16, and was hospitalized four days later with pneumonia -- China's first suspected SARS case since July.
The man's condition was good and "his temperature has been normal for the past several days," a WHO statement said.
All of the man's human contacts were also described as being healthy. Forty-two people, including more than 30 medical workers, were placed in quarantine.
Some have been removed from medical observation, the WHO statement said, while others are set to be released in the next few days as a 14-day observation period comes to an end.
Unlike influenza, SARS has no known treatment and little is still known of its origins other than it sprang up in Guangdong province in November last year.
SARS killed 774 people worldwide and sickened nearly 8,100 before subsiding in June.
The flu-like illness claimed 349 lives on China's mainland and more than 5,000 were stricken.
There have been two other confirmed cases of SARS since the WHO declared the epidemic over earlier this year.
One was in Singapore in September and the other in Taiwan last month, both involving researchers working with the virus.
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