Taiwan to see end of SARS measures soon

Main Category: Flu / Cold / SARS
Article Date: 21 Dec 2003 - 0:00 PDT

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Taiwan's health authorities said yesterday they would release 12 more people from home quarantine because they have shown no SARS symptoms since coming in contact with a medical researcher infected with the potentially deadly virus.

Meanwhile, doctors said the researcher, identified only as Lieutentant Colonel Chan, was in stable condition yesterday.

A total of 34 people who had contact with Chan had been placed in home quarantine while doctors checked for SARS symptoms such as fever. Twenty were released Friday while 12 others were to be freed at midnight last night, Taiwan's Center for Disease Control said.

The two remaining under observation - Chan's wife and father - could be released on December 25, the CDC said.

Most of those quarantined were passengers on the December 10 flight from Singapore to Taiwan along with Chan.

Unless new cases come to light, the precautionary measure of taking temperatures of visitors to public places will end January 1.

'If there are no special circumstances, we can end the SARS alert by the end of this month, December 31,' CDC spokesman Shih Wen-yi (Ž{•¶‹V) said.

The island was put on a level B alert - the second-highest of a four-level system - December 17 after Chan was diagnosed as having the SARS virus.

The results of an investigation released Thursday determined that it was an isolated case. Because the victim was infected in a maximum-security laboratory with a biosafety level of four, the chances of the virus breaking the laboratory's containment were considered to be virtually nil.

More details regarding the accident were given late Friday by investigators of the accident.

Investigators said the scientist, a 44-year-old medical researcher, opened a closed cabinet in his military laboratory when he found a leaking plastic bag with a small amount of liquid on December 6, a day before he was scheduled to leave for a seminar in Singapore.

He tried to disinfect the bag with alcohol spray, according to an initial report issued by the government.

'Chan probably tried to open the cabinet that should have been completely sealed in an attempt to clean up the bag, which allowed a small amount of the virus to escape,' chief investigator Chang Shang-tsun told a news conference.

Chan, 44, was reported to be in stable condition yesterday at the Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital. His doctor said he might be able to come off the respirator soon if he continues to improve, but indicated there were still some worrying signs.

'Our chest X-rays show the situation on his right lung growing worse, but improving on his left lung,' his doctor said.

Chan first became ill on December 10 after returning from Singapore, but did not seek medical assistance until December 15 when he developed diarrhea. His father said yesterday that the scientist had stayed at home for five days after realizing he might have contracted the deadly virus.

'My son had refused to go to the hospital and said he wanted to die at home because he feared his illness would bring shame to his lab and the country,' the father said on television. 'He finally agreed to go to the hospital after I threatened to kill myself.'

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization issued a statement yesterday warning that 'the possibility that a SARS outbreak could occur following a laboratory accident is a risk of considerable importance,' and stressed the importance of strict adherence to biosafety procedures for laboratory work with SARS.

The WHO strongly recommended that national governments maintain a registry of laboratories that are approved to safely and securely hold and work with specimens of suspected or confirmed SARS patients or cultures containing SARS virus, the statement said.

The world health body encouraged the destruction of unwanted or unneeded clinical and animal specimens suspected or confirmed of containing the SARS virus that could not be kept under secure conditions.

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