A medical researcher in Singapore was confirmed to be suffering from Sars yesterday in what appeared to be the world's first case since a global outbreak was declared over in July. ...The announcement caused alarm throughout Asia and jolted the financial markets, shaving 2.6 per cent off the Straits Times index, its biggest one-day fall since March.
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Health officials said Tuesday that additional tests on a laboratory technician have also come back positive for SARS, making it possibly the first new case of the deadly disease since it was contained two months ago. The World Health Organization urged caution, saying more tests are needed.
Genetic testing of animals sold as delicacies in a southern Chinese market confirms suspicions that the deadly SARS virus jumped from animals to people, Chinese researchers said on Thursday.The researchers found clear differences between the animal and human versions of the virus, but said they were minor enough to show that SARS jumped from animals, as influenza and other viruses have done.
"It's a landmark discovery," said Kathryn Holmes of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, a leading expert on the coronavirus family that SARS belong to.
"The question that everyone has had is, 'how did this virus appear in the human population?"' Holmes added in a telephone interview. "This is the first major clue about where the contact might have come from.
Singapore reported a possible return of SARS on Monday, hours after the World Health Organization had warned the deadly virus could reappear.The Ministry of Health said initial tests showed one man had tested positive for the pneumonia-like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome virus, in what it believed was an isolated case.
The United Nations health agency has warned that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome could re-emerge in the coming months, as winter takes hold in the northern hemisphere.A statement from the Geneva-based World Health Organization Tuesday said that while the human chain of SARS transmission has been interrupted, many experts are concerned that it might be a seasonal disease that will come back.