SINGAPORE,12 September 2003 — Investigations into a mysterious single SARS case in Singapore narrowed yesterday to two laboratories where a scientist worked before catching the disease. Research on SARS was done at one of them.
China, widely accused of covering up this year’s initial outbreak of the flu-like disease, said it was pulling out all the stops to prevent a resurgence.
Beijing airport was keeping aircraft from Singapore away from the main terminal and passengers from the city state would undergo separate health checks, state media said. Shanghai adopted similar measures.
Taipei and Hong Kong, both hit hard by the last outbreak, also tightened health checks on people arriving from Singapore after the 27-year-old Singaporean scientist tested positive for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome on Tuesday.
The World Health Organization, which had declared the global outbreak over in July, said it would send two experts “at the request of the Singapore government” this weekend to help the city state review laboratory safety.
“There is an internal review being conducted but we also want an external review. WHO has helped arrange for two experts, one from Japan and one from Australia, who will be coming to Singapore,” said Dr. Balaji Sadasivan, junior health minister.
“All the labs are looking at safety measures, especially after this incident,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a WHO regional conference in Manila.
The scientist had worked at a laboratory at the National University of Singapore, studying the West Nile virus. But on Aug. 23, three days before falling sick, he visited an Environmental Health Institute lab where SARS research is done.
The WHO has said the Singapore case did not fit its profile of SARS and was “not an international public health concern”. It says it is safe to travel to Singapore.
Nevertheless, the case has put Asia on alert for a feared winter revival of the disease which infected nearly 8,500 people globally this year, predominantly in Asia, and killed more than 800, including 33 in Singapore. It battered the tourism industry.
Sadasivan said the scientist probably caught the virus in one of the labs. But the Health Ministry has given no official explanation as to how the man, who has not been identified, caught the disease pending its own investigation.
“We’re now looking into this,” said ministry spokeswoman Bey Mui Leng. “We cannot provide a time frame for the investigation.”
Both laboratories have been shut, and 25 people who came into contact with the man are quarantined at home, although none has SARS symptoms. The National University of Singapore has begun its own inquiry and has quarantined 16 staff members and students.
But most people in Singapore, a tightly controlled island of four million residents, are calm. Investors bought stocks again after dips this week as worries about the disease receded.
Most say they take comfort in strict health controls put in place during the last outbreak and believe reassurances from the WHO and their government that the latest case was isolated and posed only a low risk.
A spokesman for Singapore Airlines, the nation’s main carrier, said there was no noticeable drop in bookings. Hotel operator Shangri-La and other hotels said business was normal. Shopping malls and restaurants were busy.
Many buildings, including the main international airport, already use thermal scanners to check people for signs of fever.
In China, where the disease is believed to have originated late last year, health authorities said they remained vigilant and advised people not to mistake steps to block SARS for an actual outbreak.
After failing to admit the seriousness of the outbreak, which critics blamed for the worldwide spread, China recorded about 5,300 cases and more than 340 deaths.
Henk Beckedam, WHO representative in Beijing, said the agency was helping authorities beef up surveillance in Guangdong province, where the virus is thought to have jumped from animals to humans. “We need to have quite a sensitive system,” he said.
Taiwan, where 71 people died from SARS, and Hong Kong, where about 300 died, tightened surveillance of Singaporeans and dusted off health procedures set up during the last outbreak.
Vietnam, the first country in the world to be declared SARS-free at the end of April after five deaths, said it was geared up to cope with any new outbreak.
