A suspected case of a man infected with the SARS virus, has been reported in China. More tests are being carried out as a 鈥渃onfused laboratory picture鈥� emerges.
Some reports suggested on Tuesday that SARS had indeed been confirmed by laboratory tests on samples from the 32-year-old television producer.
Previous incidents since the world was declared SARS-free in late June, have proved to be either false alarms or isolated accidents in laboratory workers. For example, a case of SARS was confirmed in a medical researcher in Taiwan on 17 December.
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鈥淭he case has been confirmed,鈥� Feng Shaoming, spokesman for the Guangdong Centre for Disease Control, told AFP on Tuesday. 鈥淥ur experts at the Centre for Disease Control have made many tests and they are all positive.鈥�
But the World Health Organization stresses the case is still only suspected of being Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
鈥淭he consensus is that this is still a suspected case,鈥� says Dick Thompson, a spokesman for WHO in Geneva.
He told 快猫短视频 that most of the samples from the sick man had tested negative. 鈥淏ut at least one of the samples is positive in different labs using different tests,鈥� he says.
False positive results
A nasal swab sample has tested positive for SARS coronavirus using a PCR-based DNA test.
But Thompson cautions that the positive result could be due to 鈥渃ross reactivity鈥� 鈥� where closely related viruses may prompt the false positive results. Positive results for SARS were found in patients in a suspected outbreak in Vancouver, Canada in August, but WHO declared they did not have SARS.
WHO has sent a team of three experts to Guangdong where the latest suspected case has emerged. A WHO laboratory expert arrived in Beijing on Monday. However, Chinese authorities will be sending samples from the patient overseas for testing.
Rapid isolation
The latest patient with suspected SARS fell ill on 16 December with fever and headache. He visited a hospital on 20 December, where he was diagnosed with pneumonia. However, chest x-rays showed changes in his lower right lung. He was then placed in isolation.
All 81 contacts of the man have been traced and isolated. None are sick.
The TV producer became ill in Guangzhou, in China鈥檚 southern Guangdong province. SARS first emerged in Guangdong in November 2002. It is thought to have jumped to humans from wild animals such as the civet cat, sold as culinary delicacies in Guangdong鈥檚 live markets.
鈥淭he investigation so far has not shown any possible source of infection for him,鈥� says Thompson. But he believes the early detection and rapid isolation of the patient may help prevent possible spread of the disease.
The SARS epidemic rampaged across the globe in 2003 鈥� causing over 800 deaths and 8400 cases in 30 countries worldwide.