Australian health authorities gave a tentative all-clear today to two Chinese flight attendants being held in isolation at a Sydney hospital on suspicion of having the potentially deadly SARS virus.
The two women arrived in Australia from China on a Southern China Airlines flight on Tuesday showing symptoms of the flu-like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and were admitted to Sydney's St. Vincent Hospital.
"It is becoming clearer that the two people here in hospital at the moment do not have SARS," the acting director of the state's communicable diseases authority said. "The test results so far and the clinical condition of the two people indicates that they do not have SARS."
He said further test results expected in the next few days would more fully determine the condition of the women.
Fears of another outbreak of SARS have risen since Chinese health officials reported one confirmed case and two suspected cases in the Chinese province of Guangdong.
SARS killed 800 people in 31 countries last year but it was declared under control in July. Australian suffered no deaths during the outbreak but isolated a number of people suspected of having the virus.