[新闻]China Reports Suspected Case of SARS in Beijing

By JIM YARDLEY

Published: April 23, 2004


EIJING, April 22 ― The Chinese government announced Thursday that a nurse in Beijing had been hospitalized with a suspected case of SARS and that five other people had been isolated with fevers. The authorities in Hong Kong also said a second suspected SARS patient had been discovered in eastern China.

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The possible reappearance of severe acute respitory syndrome in Beijing comes just over a year after the virus first swept through the city, causing widespread panic, closing schools and forcing top leaders to admit that the government had initially covered up the presence of the disease. The scandal led to the dismissal of the Beijing mayor and China's health minister.

The announcement is surprising because China has had no reported cases of SARS since January.

On Thursday evening, the official New China News Agency reported that a 20-year-old nurse in Beijing had been hospitalized as a suspected SARS case but made no mention of a second suspected case.

Hours later, the Hong Kong Health Department said the Chinese Health Ministry had notified them about two suspected cases of "atypical pneumonia," one in Beijing and a second in Anhui Province. Atypical pneumonia, though a broader medical term, is the one used by Hong Kong's health department for SARS.

A third agency, the Hong Kong Hospital Authority, said it had been specifically notified of two suspected SARS cases by local officials.

The Chinese Health Ministry ordered local health departments across China to be on alert for possible SARS cases. The health authorities in Beijing appear to have reacted swiftly in the case of the nurse, a woman identified only by her surname, Li. Five people who developed fevers after coming in close contact with her are now in isolation, the officials said. Another 171 people who have been in contact have been given medical examinations.

Officials have also notified health departments across China to increase their vigilance.

"It certainly looks as if the whole system has swung into action and she has been detected relatively early," said Dr. Julie Hall, the SARS team leader in the Beijing office of the World Health Organization.

Ms. Li became ill on April 5, with symptoms that included coughing, fever and shivering, officials said. She was hospitalized April 7 and transferred a week later to an intensive care unit in another hospital.

That same day two relatives of the nurse came down with fevers. Since then, Ms. Li has tested positive on different blood tests that detect antibodies to SARS.

The initial SARS outbreak began in southern China in November 2002 and swept to Hong Kong and around the world. More than 8,000 cases were reported worldwide with nearly 800 deaths attributed to the virus. That outbreak officially ended last summer, but scientists warned it would probably reappear. The arrival of winter brought four cases in Guangdong Province in December and January, and another was discovered in Taiwan.

Dr. Hall said it remained unclear how the nurse might have come into contact with the disease.