China has confirmed case of SARS, UN health agency says

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 (WHO) 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.’”

SARS broke out in the late 2002, killing over 700 people and infecting more than 8,000 worldwide.

Listen to UN Radio report