Mystery over suspect SARS case

GENETIC tests on a suspected SARS case in southern China show the patient “may” have the disease, the government said yesterday as Hong Kong scientists joined the international effort to solve the mystery of whether the man is infected.

Chinese specialists were still confirming test results on material from the patient’s throat, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The world’s first case of what would come to be known as SARS was recorded in Guangdong in November 2002. The flu-like illness killed 349 people on China’s mainland and 774 around the world before it was brought under control last summer. More than 8,000 were infected.