SARS suspect quarantined but virus appears not infectious

CHINA'S first suspected SARS patient in months is in stable condition under quarantine, the health ministry said yesterday.

The 32-year-old freelance television producer is in hospital in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, where the deadly flu-like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) first erupted in November last year.

"His condition is stable and his temperature is normal," the health ministry said on its website www.moh.gov.cn, adding that no new cases were found.

Those who have had close contact with the victim were also under quarantine, but do not have a fever and have not shown other SARS symptoms.

"The case does not seem to be infectious and the patient is recovering very quickly," Xinhua quoted Zhong Nanshan, one of China's top respiratory experts, as saying.

News of the possible new SARS case comes just weeks before the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday when millions of people in China and across East and Southeast Asia travel to visit relatives.

A World Health Organisation expert was due to arrive in Beijing on Monday and the agency hoped to send a team to Guangdong.

"We've discussed the possibility of sending a team to the area and so the co-operation is ongoing," WHO spokesman Roy Wadia told Reuters.

"The tests have been confusing so far in the sense that there've been some positives and some negatives and so that's why we're getting the outside expert to come in as well and review all the data collected so far."

The WHO declared the world free of the virus in July, but two cases described as isolated by the world body have occurred since then in Singapore and Taiwan involving researchers in laboratories.