SINGAPORE, 9 September 2003 — The dreaded severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has resurfaced in this island city-state, health officials confirmed yesterday, saying that a local patient has tested positive for SARS in the first new case of the disease in over five months. The announcement followed a warning from the World Health Organization (WHO) earlier in the day that the illness could re-emerge.
Ministry of Health spokeswoman Bey Mui Leng said that initial tests of a local man “proved positive for the SARS virus.”
“We are repeating the test again tonight,” Bey said. The man, an ethnic Chinese Singapore citizen, was tested for SARS after showing signs of the illness when trying to enter Singapore General Hospital, Bey said.
Patients checking into Singapore hospitals are required to have their temperature taken as a precaution against SARS. Fever is an early symptom of the illness.
Officials are trying to track down anyone who might have come into contact with the man and will issue them quarantine orders, Bey said.
SARS originated in southern China and was spread early this year to 30 countries by travelers. It infected nearly 8,500 people globally and more than 800 died, including 33 in Singapore where the government imposed strict health controls. The virus trimmed economic growth forecasts and cost billions of dollars in lost business.
The WHO had declared the global outbreak contained on July 5.
Hours before the Singapore announcement yesterday, the head of the WHO warned health specialists meeting in Manila of a possible resurgence of SARS and urged nations to boost surveillance.
“None of us can predict what will happen later this year. Will SARS come back or not?” Director-General Lee Jong-wook told a five-day meeting of a WHO regional panel.
WHO officials and other medical experts have said they are not sure if SARS, which has no known cure, was a disease confined to winter months. “We are certain that the human-to-human transmission of the virus stopped in July and it hasn’t come back yet. But the virus is still out there,” Peter Cordingley, WHO’s head of public information in the Western Pacific region, said.
