The Ministry of Health announced Saturday that its hunt for the source of the recent outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Beijing and Anhui Province continues.

The first diagnosed SARS patient, surnamed Song, is a 26-year-old postgraduate student from Anhui Province. She worked in Beijing at the Chinese Center for Disease Prevention and Control's National Institute of Virology from March 7 through 22. Her symptoms appeared on March 25, after she had returned to Anhui.

Another SARS patient who may have been infected while working at the virology institute is a 31-year-old researcher surnamed Yang. His symptoms developed on April 17.

Within a short time after the first patient was identified as possibly having SARS, a team of experts from China's Academy of Military Medical Sciences, and the Beijing and national disease prevention and control centers assembled to conduct an epidemiological investigation. The team, joined by counterparts from the World Health Organization, has investigated the two virology institute cases and interviewed all other staff working there.

They also conducted field investigations and collected samples at the laboratory, which have been sent to two Chinese national laboratories and a World Health Organization (WHO) network laboratory for testing.

However, the team believes that more tests must be run on the laboratory samples, as well on samples taken from Song and Yang and those infected by them, in order to separate and verify the SARS virus and determine the virus sequence.

"Therefore, we still need to wait for the final result," said an official with the health ministry.

China has reported no new confirmed or suspected SARS cases in several days. All previously diagnosed patients are in good condition, with the exception of Beijing patient Zhang. The capital's first diagnosed SARS patient, Li, has recovered and was discharged from hospital on May 4.

(China Daily May 9, 2004)