China Sars Patient Recovers

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3372375.stm

 

China Sars patient recovers

 

China has announced that its first Sars patient since last year's

outbreak has fully recovered from the disease.

State news agency Xinhua said the 32-year-old TV producer is expected to

leave hospital on Thursday.

 

The news came as criticism mounted of a mass cull of civet cats in

Guangdong province, prompted by the man's case.

 

Researchers say there may be a link between civets and the man's Sars

strain, but critics say the slaughter is inhumane and possibly

unnecessary.

 

Guangdong authorities have begun to kill up to 10,000 of the animals by

drowning them in disinfectant and then electrocuting and incinerating

them.

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) criticised the cull, saying there is

no firm evidence that civets carry Sars and that the slaughter might

erase clues about how the disease spread, and also risked spreading it.

 

It also warned that not enough research had been conducted into possible

links between the civet cat and Sars.

 

" At this point in time... without seeing that data, there is no

conclusive evidence that civets are the animals that carry the Sars

virus, " WHO Sars team leader Judy Hall told the BBC.

 

Animal rights activists said the cull should be carried out in a way

which ensures minimal suffering.

 

" Drowning is quite inhumane as it takes about a few minutes before the

animal dies, " said Ng Cho-nam, director of the Conservancy Association

in Hong Kong.

 

" If we used knives to kill them, the blood would spread the disease, " a

Guangdong official told Reuters news agency.

 

Xinhua said the man whose virus had sparked the cull has had no fever

for more than a week, and has no other symptoms of the flu-like disease.

 

It quoted Tang Xiaoping, president of the No 8 People's Hospital in

Guangzhou, as hoping that " society would embrace the man and let him

return to a normal life as soon as possible " .

 

An additional 25 people who had contact with the patient have been

isolated, but none appears to be infected.

 

Hong Kong and Taiwan have stepped up their monitoring of visitors from

China, which had been Sars-free for six months before the latest case

was confirmed on Monday.

 

In the Philippines, authorities are monitoring 38 people who may have

come into contact with a woman who may have become will with the virus

in Hong Kong. The woman and her husband showed signs of improvement on

Tuesday.

 

The BBC's Louisa Lim, in Beijing, says that in contrast to the last

outbreak more than a year ago, there has been little sense of panic.

 

People are generally confident that the government has the situation

under control, our correspondent says.

 

Sars killed 349 people on China's mainland during the previous global

outbreak.

 

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Dave Neale

Animals Asia Foundation

 

Find out more about the historic China Bear Rescue by visiting the

Animals Asia Foundation website at http://www.animalsasia.org