Singapore man tests positive for SARS ( 2003-09-09 17:13) (Agencies)
Singapore health officials said Tuesday that further testing of a local man
for severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, has confirmed that he has the
illness.
Singapore medical
staff have been on alert for a new outbreak of SARS.
[cnn.com/file]
"It appears to be a single
isolated case," a statement from the Ministry of Health said.
The case is Singapore's first in four months.
It is not yet known how the 27-year-old Singaporean laboratory technician
contracted the illness. He is a post-doctoral student working on the West Nile
virus, the ministry said.
Twenty-five people who came in contact with the man have been issued home
quarantine orders, it said.
Acting Minister of Health Khaw Boon Wan told reporters at a press conference
that the man had no recent travel history and no known contact with any SARS
patients.
Khaw said he thought the man posed a "low public health risk" because he was
isolated quickly.
The case may mark the return of SARS, which killed more 900 people worldwide
after it was first found last November in China.
However, officials from the World Health Organization were hesitant to say
the case was the start of a fresh epidemic.
By WHO's current definition of a probable case, there must be at least two
SARS patients reported in the same hospital environment.
WHO regional spokesman Peter Cordingley said in the Philippines that
Singapore officials have already traced people who were in contact with the man,
"and none of them is sick."
If confirmed, the Singapore case would mark the return of SARS, which killed
more 900 people worldwide after it first emerged last November in China. More
than 8,400 people were sickened before WHO declared in June that the disease had
been "stopped dead in its tracks."