A joint experts' team Saturday visited the restaurant where the
latest suspected severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) patient
had been working as a waitress, and a wild animal market in
Guangzhou, capital of south China's
Guangdong
Province.
The team, organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and
China's Ministry of Health (MOH), is researching all possible
channels through which SARS could spread, and is collecting
relevant specimens.
A 20-year-old waitress was confirmed Thursday as the second
suspected SARS case on the Chinese mainland. She is now in a stable
condition, and all the 100 people who have had contact with her,
including 48 with close contact, have shown no SARS symptoms,
according to the health ministry's daily report Saturday.
The team's inspection of the restaurant lasted over two hours.
WHO expert Robert Breiman said the inspection focused on the
environmental transmission factors. The team has talked with
workers in the restaurant, and made a thorough study of the
canteen's environment, especially the place where food is
processed. Breiman said an evaluation report is being made.
In the afternoon, the experts went to the city's largest
wildlife market. People in charge of the market reported to the
team details of the market's operation and environment, and the
latter inspected the interior and surroundings of the place, and
took photographs.
The team is the second joint experts' group of the WHO and
China's health ministry to visit Guangzhou in one month. The first
team made a six-day investigation from Dec. 29, 2003, targeting
epidemiology research and hospital infection control, and also
offering technical assistance.
Last July, a 14-member team composed of experts from the Chinese
Ministry of Science and Technology, the MOH, the WHO and the Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, visited
Guangzhou in connection with the SARS epidemic.
(Xinhua News Agency January 11, 2004)