China slaughters market animals to prevent spread of SARS

China has confirmed its first case of severe acute respiratory syndrome since July. It says a man who has been in hospital for three weeks definitely has the disease. "Currently the patient is in a stable condition and has normal body temperature," reported Chinese state television.

The news comes as other Asian countries are also dealing with a recurrence of SARS.

In the Philippines, authorities have isolated a woman and her husband who may have been infected. The woman developed a fever after flying home from Hong Kong, and tests are still being carried out.

Recently there were also SARS cases reported in Taiwan and Singapore, although both of those cases are believed to have been a result of the SARS virus escaping in a laboratory setting.

A total of 80 people who were in contact with the Chinese man have been traced and put in quarantine, or under medical observation. So far, none has shown any symptoms.

The World Health Organization confirms the diagnosis, but says there is no need for travel warnings. "We have done our homework now. We have invited the global experts and we confirm now there's a SARS laboratory-confirmed case," said WHO representative Dr. Henk Bekedam.

When the last case of SARS wound down last summer, virologists warned that people shouldn't let their guard down, because the SARS virus could come back, and now it has.

A 32-year-old television producer in Guangdong province has been confirmed with SARS, although he is now said to be symptom-free and recovering. The World Health Organization has confirmed the case in Guangdong, but says this one case does not constitute an immediate public health risk.

The difference between now and when SARS first appeared in Nov. 2002 is that an international surveillance system is in place and the reaction by public health authorities to suspected SARS cases has been swift.

The Chinese government, which covered up the epidemic for the first five months, announced this new SARS case on national television.

Guangdong authorities launched what they called a "patriotic health campaign," ordering Guangdong's wild animal markets shut down, and some 10,000 civet cats killed.

Genetic tests of the SARS patient found that the virus closely resembles a coronavirus carried by civet cats, although he has claimed he did not eat nor come in contact with wild animals in the weeks before he got sick. Similar species of animals in the markets are also to be slaughtered, including badgers and raccoon dogs.

In China, officials have responded to this most recent case by ordering the slaughter of thousands of civet cats in wildlife markets. They're considered a delicacy in the southern province of Guangdong. Chinese officials believe they may be the source for this new SARS infection.

"In this situation we will take resolute measures to close all the wildlife markets in Guangdong and to kill the civet cats," said Feng Liu Xiang, vice-director of the Guangdong Health Department.

But the World Health Organization says there's no evidence to support that suggestion. The WHO says that while there's strong evidence linking civet cats with the SARS virus, a wholesale slaughter of the animals carries its own risks and could even spread the virus.

Many of the earliest cases of SARS were found in people who butchered wild animals in Guangdong's markets, or who dealt with the carcasses.

But China now appears keen to demonstrate to the world that it learned its lesson from last year's outbreak which inflected more than 5,000 people.

Mao Quan-An, a spokesman for the Chinese Health Ministry said "fighting against SARS is still a tough task facing us. All the health departments should pay a great deal of attention to this work, treating it as a prime task."