The WHO experts have been visiting atypical pneumonia patients and meeting with Chinese doctors since they arrived here on April 3.

On Sunday morning, the team visited the municipal disease prevention and treatment center, which has preserved more than 700 samples of serum extracted from atypical pneumonia patients and from those who have had close contact with the patients.

Guangdong Province reported the first case of atypical pneumonia.

The Guangzhou municipal government provided the team with all of the government policies and leaflets distributed by the local public health administration to educate citizens on prevention.

The files will help other countries and regions to fight atypical pneumonia, said Dr. Meirion Evans, a member of the WHO team.

The experts randomly selected local patients and received detailed information about their condition and treatment from hospitals.

James Maguire, a member of the WHO team, visited the local hospital with the greatest number of atypical pneumonia patients here Sunday afternoon. He observed the hospital's measures to protect doctors and nurses and to process waste.

He said he was impressed by the hospital and medical workers here.

Meanwhile, another WHO expert, Dr. Robert F. Breiman, visited an atypical pneumonia patient who has infected 21 of his family members with the disease.

Data about this patient and his family is valuable for doctors, Breiman said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 7, 2003)