anything happening soon, page-2

Hi Folks

This case although contracted during laboratory testing of the SARS virus, highlights that this is far from over.

Interesting to see AFT move higher today.

Whilst AFT are yet to report on the SARS testing in China, it is heading toward 3 weeks overdue.

'Perhaps' this would be an appropriate time to announce progress...or lack of...to the market.

May be worth watching tomorrow for those interested.

Any good news in China is going to see AFT appreciate markedly.


(Accessed via ninemsn.com.au)

SARS resurfaces with new case


AFP - Taiwan health authorities said a man working at a military medical research institute had contracted SARS, the island's first case of the killer respiratory disease in five months.

The 44-year-old man caught the virus in a laboratory on December 5 while conducting an experiment on SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), the disease that ravaged Asia this year causing hundreds of deaths.

"The victim is a researcher engaging in a government-funded research project on SARS, who was infected with the virus accidentally during the experiment," said Department of Health Minister Chen Chien-jen.

"Only one person has been infected so far," he told a press conference.

The patient, a lieutenant-colonel working at the Institute of Preventive Medicine of National Defense Medical Center, developed fever following a December 7-10 trip to Singapore, where he attended a medical seminar.





Center for Disease Control Director Su Ih-jen said the man tested positive Wednesday. He was being treated at the SARS-designated Hoping Municipal Hospital and was not suffering from respiratory difficulties, doctors said.

The patient's wife and two children and those who had contact with him would be observed for 21 days until December 31 to watch for signs of fever, an early symptom of the disease, which claimed 37 lives in Taiwan.

Chen meanwhile urged the public to step up personal hygiene and other preventive measures but said there was no cause for panic, describing the positive test as an isolated case.

The case is the first on the island since the World Health Organisation (WHO) on July 5 declared the epidemic had been contained worldwide after announcing Taiwan -- the last region on a blacklist -- SARS-free.

WHO's Western Pacific regional office spokesman Peter Cordingley in Manila declined to make an immediate comment. "We are still waiting for more information," he told AFP.

Singapore authorities said they had launched an investigation into the case, stressing the city-state was SARS free.

"We are establishing the facts of the case but there are no suspect (cases) of SARS in Singapore," a health ministry spokeswoman told AFP.

She said authorities were trying to find out who came into contact with the Taiwanese man. Singapore, which suffered 33 fatalities during the worldwide outbreak earlier this year, last reported a SARS case in September.

The WHO had previously warned Asian nations to take steps against a possible recurrence of the virus, which experts fear could return in cooler winter months across the region.

The pneumonia-like disease broke out in China's southern Guangdong province in November last year and later spread to and caused mass outbreaks in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Vietnam.