Medical experts in Shanghai involved in diagnosing severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) said facts have shown Shanghai's SARS diagnosis standards are scientific and correct.

Professor Wu Shanming with the Shanghai Infectious Disease Hospital said that seven of the eight confirmed SARS patients by Thursday were imported from outside China, and the remaining one was infected by the patient's son in Shanghai.

"That is very important for us in diagnosing suspected cases and determining SARS cases," said Wu, also a member of the municipality's SARS Diagnosis Experts Panel.

According to the standards Shanghai has set, before classifying a patient as a suspected SARS case, the person should have had known contact with a SARS patient and a fever and cough, in addition to a lowered white-blood-cell count and suspicious spots on a chest X-ray, said Wu.

The panel will also classify as suspected SARS cases those with a body temperature higher than 38.5 degrees centigrade, with obvious symptoms and in a critical situation, but also with known contact with a SARS patient.

They will additionally classify as suspected SARS cases those who have had no contact with a SARS patient and are not in critical situation, but who cannot prove they have other diseases, said Wu.

Shanghai reported 84 suspected SARS cases by May 22 with only four later confirmed to be SARS patients, and the remaining 80 were classified as non-SARS cases, said the professor.

Citing an example, Wu said it took them more than a month to determine a suspected case as SARS case, since he tested negative for the SARS virus at first but turned positive about a month later after hospitalization. That was the seventh SARS case.

The eighth SARS case was confirmed in less than 24 hours after the patient fell ill on May 21 shortly after arriving in the city at 9:20 a.m. from Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province.

The patient was declared a SARS suspect at 9:00 p.m. the same day and was confirmed as a SARS case by the panel according to the chest X-ray.

Professor Weng Xinhua, another member of the panel, said Shanghai was implementing the standards on suspected SARS cases to the letter.

Xu Jinming, a doctor with the Shanghai Lung Hospital, a designated hospital for SARS patients, said facts showed the existing diagnosis standards for suspected and confirmed SARS cases are scientific and correct.

(China Daily May 25, 2003)