Authorities seek urgent details on suspected Kiwi Sars patient

12.00pm

New Zealand health authorities are urgently seeking details about a Kiwi who has been quarantined in China suspected of having the deadly Sars virus.

Ministry of Health director of public health Colin Tukuitonga said today little was known about the unnamed 39-year-old man who was diagnosed on Monday as having severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Dr Tukuitonga said ministry officials were liaising with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) to learn more about the man and his condition.

The official Chinese Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday the man was quarantined in a hospital in the northwestern province of Shaanxi.

"Our role in this is to provide advice," Dr Tukuitonga said. "The issue now is the welfare of a New Zealanders overseas."

It was MFAT's role to identify the New Zealander and get details of his wellbeing.

Dr Tukuitonga said he had "absolutely no idea" about who the man was, what he was doing in China and how long he had been there.

"I wish I knew. I don't have any information."

If health officials in China confirm the diagnosis, the man will be the first New Zealander to contract the deadly disease which had killed more than 200 and affected about 4000 people worldwide.

Xinhua reported that experts diagnosed the New Zealander as having Sars on Monday.

He had been on a tour from the capital, Beijing, to the central city of Wuhan and west to Chongqing before going to the tourist city of Xi'an.

He was detected as a suspected case on Sunday, when he was about to board Hainan Airlines flight HU7881 to Beijing from Xi'an, home of the famed Terracotta Warriors.

Health officials in Shaanxi asked the airline and the city to register and investigate the names and contacts of all travellers on the same flights with the patient, the news agency said.

Authorities asked for the hotel where the patient stayed to be disinfected. Tour guides, bus drivers and those who had close contact with the New Zealand man have been quarantined, it said.

Dr Tukuitonga said he would be "extremely surprised" if the New Zealander was well enough to travel, but health authorities here would monitor his movements.

"If he's well, I imagine he'll be isolated in some way for the incubation period."

How the man was treated on his return to New Zealand depended on his condition.

"If he's unwell, then clearly we need to make sure he's isolated.

"But if he's not unwell and is deemed to be non-infectious, then there's no need to monitor his movements."

Dr Tukuitonga said the ministry was more concerned about suspected Sars patients during the critical disease incubation period.

An MFAT spokeswoman told NZPA little was known about the New Zealander at this stage. The only information available was from the Xinhua news report.

She said the ministry would contact New Zealand officials in Beijing for details as soon as the diplomatic mission there opened today.

The case came as China stepped up efforts to prevent travellers from carrying Sars around the country.

On Tuesday, the national tourism authority said travel agencies should focus on anti-Sars campaigns instead of promoting tourism from now to May 31, Xinhua said.

It also urged tour groups to avoid rural and remote areas, where experts fear public health facilities are inadequately prepared to handle an outbreak of Sars.

Shaanxi has logged one other Sars case -- a local Xi'an female resident was reported on Monday, it said.

- NZPA, REUTERS