BEIJING, (AFP) - A suspected case of Severe Acute Respiratory...

BEIJING, (AFP) - A suspected case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in southern Guangdong province has been upgraded to a confirmed case, a senior provincial health official said.

"The case has been confirmed," Feng Shaoming, spokesman for the Guangdong Center for Disease Control, told AFP.

"Our experts at the Center for Disease Control have made many tests and they are all positive.

"So far the Ministry of Health has not announced it, nor has the World Health Organization (WHO)."

Three experts from the WHO were in the provincial capital of Guangzhou Tuesday and were going over the test results, Feng said.

He further acknowledged that the case would not be officially upgraded to a confirmed case until the Ministry of Health made a formal announcement.

"I don't know when they will, it is up to them, but our experts here have confirmed it."

Wang Maowu, director of disease control at the national-level Chinese Centre for Disease Control, told AFP an official statement was likely to be issued Wednesday. "Our work still needs to be done," Wang said.

Roy Wadia, WHO's Beijing-based spokesman, said that no official confirmation of the case had come out of the Ministry of Health and that the WHO was trying to contact their ministry counterpart.

"We are trying to get confirmation with the Ministry of Health, we are also trying to contact our team in Guangzhou to get clarification," Wadia told AFP.

"So far we have no official word ourselves."

China's health ministry announced Saturday the discovery of a suspected case of SARS in a 32-year-old man in the Guangdong provincial capital of Guangzhou, near where the virus was first detected last year.

The freelance journalist, identified only as Luo, developed a fever on December 16 and was hospitalized with pneumonia in the right lung on December 20.


Wonder what effect this will have on China's testing???