Third case of Sars confirmed

Third case of Sars confirmed

Third case of Sars confirmed

A third case of the deadly atypical pneumonia Sars has been confirmed in southern China.

The official China Daily on Monday said a 35-year-old man was being observed in isolation at a hospital where two other Sars cases, one of them confirmed, were treated.

The daily quoted Mao Qun’an, a spokesman as saying: “The Ministry of Health has received the report from Guangdong health authorities on Saturday that a man with some Sars symptoms has been isolated in hospital for medical observation.”

Medical teams are searching an apartment block of Luo, a 32-year-old television producer, who contracted severe acute respiratory syndrome in July but has since recovered.

The other Sars case is a 20-year-old waitress.

Dr Thomas Tsang, a spokesman for the Hong Kong Department of Health, said he had received details of the suspected case from officials in Guangdong province, close to the island.

The mystery Sars virus first emerged in Guangdong province in China in 2002. It has infected more than 8,000 people in nearly 30 countries, killing about 800.