Chinese SARS cases traced to lab
A woman suspected of contracting SARS has died and two more people have been confirmed as having the disease in China, government officials confirmed on Friday.
A Chinese Health Ministry spokesman also said the source of infection has been traced to a disease control laboratory in Beijing. In one sense, this will come as a relief to health officials, as it means there is a clear source for the outbreak. Cases that are acquired in the community are much more difficult to trace and isolate.
Laboratory workers contracted SARS in two separate incidents in 2003, one in Taiwan and one in Singapore.
The woman suspected of having SARS, named Wei, died at a hospital in the Eastern province of Anhui in China on 19 April. Blood tests have confirmed that this woman's daughter currently has the disease.
The daughter, a 26-year-old medical student named Song, spent two weeks in March working at the Chinese Center for Disease Prevention and Control in Beijing before returning to Anhui with a fever.
