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GENEVA, Switzerland, May 01, 2004 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- The latest outbreak of SARS in China is not a major threat to public health since all cases could be traced, the World Health Organization says.
China has confirmed that on April 19 a woman in Anhui Province died of severe acute respiratory syndrome, Xinhua, Chain's main government-run news agency, reported Saturday.
"We still don't view this as a major threat to public health because all of the cases so far can still be traced immunologically to the national Institute of Virology in Beijing," said a WHO spokeswoman in Geneva.
She said although the WHO had not been able to sequence or isolate the virus to determine if it was the same strain as last year's, "We are reassured that we haven't seen this pop up in other regions of the country which are not linked to these people."
So far, five SARS cases and four suspected SARS cases have been reported on the Chinese mainland since April 22. Of the five confirmed cases, two were reported in Anhui and three in Beijing. The four suspected cases are now in Beijing.
Copyright 2004 by United Press International.
