Two prestigious experts of the joint working team composed of noted specialists from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Chinese Ministry of Health on Friday visited a family affected by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

Dong Xiulan, aged 68, was diagnosed as a SARS patient on April 12 and discharged from hospital on May 24. Her husband died from SARS on May 2, and her nephew recovered from SARS and was discharged on June 4.

The building in which they live was quarantined because of close contact with four other households.

Gu Yuming, Dong's son, recalled that his mother caught a bad cold on April 9 and went to a local hospital three times afterwards for injections.

He then believed his mother may have contracted SARS at the hospital when she had the injections, as more than 40 medical workers there contracted SARS.

His mother was diagnosed as a SARS patient on April 12 and his father started showing symptoms the same day and passed away on May 2.

After hearing the sad, unfortunate story, Dr. C. K. Lee, one of the two experts, asked Gu how much he knew about SARS before his family members were hit by the epidemic.

"Very little," Gu said honestly and in a straightforward way, "we mainly relied on information from TV and the government. There was not much information then."

He looked after his family members with meticulous care while they were in hospital and attributed his escape from the serious SARS disease to his good health.

Dr. Lee, a distinguished epidemic expert from Australia, asked Gu about the family's feelings during the quarantine and whether they were supplied with enough daily necessities.

In response, Gu said that they understood the quarantine was essential to stop the SARS epidemic from spreading, and were not too inconvenienced because they could still keep in touch by telephone.

"During the quarantine, our daily demands were catered to as community workers called on us every day and we even bought some necessities over the Internet," said Gu.

Gu noted that his parents had retired with medical insurance, and SARS cost the two retirees 140,000 yuan (US$17,000), which was covered by the government.

The two experts showed keen interest in how then family fared after Dong was discharged from the hospital.

Gu recalled that his mother had three physical check-ups from the provincial disease prevention and control center and underwent a chest X-ray.

Further tests sent to Beijing for analysis showed no trace of the SARS virus.

He went on to say that the family had not worn gauge face masks at home as his mother had recovered and they had true affections for their mother, but they had been avoiding eating from shared dishes.

The hospital often called, and they could also contact the hospital directly if needed, said Gu.

Dr. Sheng Zhou, the other prestigious medical expert, asked about the attitude of other people towards the family.

Other people were still wary, Qu acknowledged, because they thought that members of the family were still carrying the SARS virus.

"This is somewhat understandable, things will be better as they get to know more."

The 11-member joint working team arrived Tuesday on a 10-day study tour to inspect SARS prevention work in north China's Shanxi Province.

The WHO lifted on June 13 travel warnings against Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, all in north China.

(Xinhua News Agency June 22, 2003)