Singapore minister says lab may be SARS source
( 2003-09-10 13:43) (Agencies)
Singapore's junior health minister said Wednesday a medical researcher who tested positive for the deadly SARS virus was an isolated case and a laboratory was the likely source of the infection.
Dr. Balaji Sadasivan, Singapore's minister of state for health, said the laboratory where the researcher was working had been temporarily shut down and the man himself posed no significant health risk to others in the city state.
"The laboratory is involved on work with SARS," he told Reuters Television on the sidelines of a WHO regional conference in Manila.
"If further testing confirms that he did have exposure to SARS, the most likely source of the SARS virus is maybe the laboratory itself."
In what may be the world's first case since a global outbreak was declared over in July, Singapore said Tuesday that 25 people had been quarantined after tests showed the 27-year-old man had Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
The sick man, a post-doctoral student working on the West Nile virus at National University of Singapore, is recovering.
The Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) said the case did not fit its definition of the disease under its new guidelines and would not trigger a public health emergency.
Singapore is sending samples of the man's tissue to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for further tests.
"All the contacts of the researcher are all well, so we don't think there is any significant health loss to anyone at this point," Sadasivan said. "This is probably an isolated case."
SARS originated in southern China and was spread to 30 countries by travelers early this year.
The virus infected nearly 8,500 people globally. More than 800 died, including 33 in Singapore, where the government imposed strict health controls.
Hong Kong and Canada suffered SARS scares in July and August, but both were eventually declared free of the virus.
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