China releases patient, says Sars controled in eastern province

An outbreak of Sars is under control in China's eastern province of Anhui, state media said on Monday, but in Beijing, where six patients are still in hospital, a health official said it was too early to declare victory.

A medical student suspected to have caught Sars in a national laboratory was discharged from a hospital in Anhui on Monday morning after having a normal temperature for 17 straight days, Xinhua news agency said.

Her mother died of the flu-like disease on April 19.

"Sars has been brought under control in east China's Anhui province," Xinhua quoted local health authorities as saying.

It said five people who had close contact with the woman and developed a fever have recovered and all 155 people who had close contact with her were let out of isolation.

Another 90 people who had casual contact with the woman, surnamed Song, were healthy, it said.

Song's release and the declaration that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome was under control in Anhui came after a week-long national holiday during which millions of Chinese travelled around the country and abroad to celebrate International Labour Day.

Sars first spread from southern China in late 2002, infecting more than 8000 people in nearly 30 countries and killing almost 800 people. In July 2003, Beijing declared the outbreak in China, the hardest hit country, conquered.

This time round, nine people were confirmed as having contracted the disease. The World Health Organisation suspects all nine are linked to the National Institute of Virology, which had been conducting experiments using the live Sars coronavirus.

In the capital, Beijing, six patients were still in hospital with the disease, three in isolation. One confirmed patient has been released.

- REUTERS

Sars