WHO team travels to China to investigate SARS outbreak

At the request of the Chinese Ministry of Health, WHO is sending an international team to help investigate the source of SARS cases recently reported in Beijing and the eastern province of Anhui. The team, which is expected to begin work tomorrow, will include experts in epidemiology, virology, infection control, and laboratory biosafety.

Results of investigations to date point to laboratory research at the National Institute of Virology in Beijing as the likely source of the outbreak. The institute has been engaged in research with the SARS coronavirus, including the development of a vaccine.

Two of the recently reported cases were conducting research at the laboratory: a 26-year-old female postgraduate student from Anhui Province, and a 31-year-old man. The dates of symptom onset in the two cases are widely separated (23 days), suggesting that more than one opportunity for exposure may have occurred in the laboratory from mid-March through early April.

Authorities have closed the virology institute and placed its more than 200 employees under medical observation. Numerous environmental samples from the laboratory have been taken to help assess possible sources of contamination, and these samples will be shared with WHO.

WHO is concerned about additional opportunities for exposure that may have already occurred. Some patients were treated or assessed in several different hospitals before a suspicion of SARS led to the introduction of adequate precautionary measures, including isolation of patients and strict procedures for infection control. One patient travelled a long distance twice by train within China while symptomatic.

Chinese authorities have heightened surveillance and reporting for SARS-like illness in health care facilities and have sent investigative teams to Anhui Province.

Since 22nd April, China has reported that eight persons have been clinically diagnosed as SARS cases or are under investigation for possible SARS infection. Six of these are in Beijing and two, including the single fatality, are in Anhui Province. As of today, close to 1000 contacts of these cases are under medical observation, including 640 in Beijing and 353 in Anhui.

To date, all diagnosed cases and cases under investigation have been linked to chains of transmission involving close personal contact with an identified case. There is no evidence of wider transmission in the community.

Source: WHO

•Date: 27th April 2004 •Region: SE Asia •Type: Article •Topic: SARS
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