CHINA: China has intensified efforts to stop a handful of cases of the SARS virus turning into a full-scale epidemic. It has tightened controls at research laboratories trying to find a cure for the illness and has given details of trains and buses used by a student who travelled across the country after contracting the potentially deadly virus.
There were four new suspected cases of SARS in Beijing at the weekend, bringing the total to six, just days before the week-long May Day holiday which sees millions of people criss-crossing the country.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it was encouraged by the fact that all six cases so far could be traced to laboratory infection, because it meant there was less chance of it turning into a wider epidemic.
But there were concerns about why it took nearly a month to determine the 26-year-old medical student had SARS, by which time her mother had died and she had made five train trips between Beijing and her home in the eastern province of Anhui.
The student caught the virus while working in a national laboratory on live SARS samples and her mother contracted the illness while caring for her.
Health authorities released details of her journeys to help track down any potential infections.
WHO technical experts were scheduled to arrive in Beijing this week to assist in the investigation, in identifying those who might have been exposed and in ensuring that proper control practices were in place.
"It appears that there were lapses in bio-safety guidelines," said Beijing-based WHO spokesman Mr Bob Dietz. "That is what they'll be investigating." Health officials have increased surveillance of passengers at railway stations and airports to stop the spread of the flu-like virus during the May Day festival, called the "Golden Week" holiday.
SARS came out of southern China in November 2002 and triggered a global health emergency. The virus, which has symptoms similar to pneumonia, killed nearly 800 people worldwide, infected 8,000 and had a devastating impact on economic growth in Asia.
In Beijing 337 people are under quarantine in a hotel and in Anhui there are 133.