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SARS outbreak in China expands
Infection Control Monitor, April 29, 2004
The latest SARS outbreak in China continues to grow in scope, with one dead, nine confirmed or suspected cases, and more than 1,000 people is isolation, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Authorities say a researcher at the Beijing-based Institute of Virology contracted SARS and infected a nurse who took care of her at a Beijing hospital. The researcher's mother died soon afterward from SARS, while the nurse's relatives and contacts also developed symptoms of the disease.
The WHO sent a team of experts to China to work with local health officials on determining the source of the outbreak, which it believes was a lab accident.
The Institute of Virology was conducting research with the SARS coronavirus, including the development of a vaccine, when the outbreak occurred. Two of the people reported to have SARS worked at the laboratory, a 26-year-old female postgraduate student from Anhui, and a 31-year-old man. The dates of symptom onset in the two cases are separated by 23 days, meaning more than one opportunity for exposure may have occurred in the lab from mid-March through early April, the WHO reports.
Authorities closed the institute and placed its more than 200 employees under medical observation. They took environmental samples from the lab to help assess possible sources of contamination.
China confirmed four cases of SARS in Guangdong earlier this year, the first since officials declared a global outbreak over last July. All four recovered. The 2003 SARS outbreaks killed nearly 800 people worldwide, including about 350 in China.
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