Check for Sars symptoms, doctors told

By RENEE KIRIONA

New Zealand hospital staff and doctors have been warned to look out for the deadly Sars disease, which has resurfaced in China, killing one woman.

The Health Ministry issued the caution yesterday but said there was minimal risk of severe acute respiratory syndrome arriving in New Zealand.

"Clearly we are keeping a close eye on the situation in China, where authorities are reporting one death and seven probable cases of Sars," said the ministry's acting director of public health, Ashley Bloomfield.

On Monday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) sent a team to Beijing and the eastern province of Anhui, where eight cases had been reported, to investigate the source.

Dr Bloomfield advised New Zealanders who had travelled to China recently and who were feeling unwell to contact their doctor, describe their travel history and seek advice.

"General practitioners and after-hours emergency centres need to be alert to this possibility, and to ensure they take a travel history of any patient who has symptoms of respiratory infection.

"Hospitals should also be alert to the possibility of Sars when they admit anyone with respiratory infection or pneumonia - particularly if the person has been in China and more so if they have had contact with a Sars patient."

Although there was concern about one patient who travelled long-distance twice by train in China while displaying symptoms, WHO believed there was no evidence of transmission in the general community or to tourists in China.

As a result, people were not being deterred from travelling there.

WHO investigations have indicated that the source was a laboratory at the National Institute of Virology in Beijing, where two patients - a 26-year-old female postgraduate student from Anhui Province and a 31-year-old man - were researching Sars.

The woman killed was the mother of the 26-year-old.

Sars outbreak

* Sars first emerged in Guangdong Province, southern China, in November 2002.

* It triggered an international health crisis, killing 774 people around the world.

* More than 8000 were infected.

* In China, 349 people died.

* New Zealand had no confirmed cases of Sars but a Hawkes Bay woman was a suspected case.