Beijing, May 08: China today said it is still conducting a thorough probe into the circumstances that led to the spread of SARS infection from the country's top virus laboratory here. The ministry of health said it is making thorough investigation into the cause of recent Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic. The first diagnosed SARS patient surnamed song, a medical graduate from Anhui province, is presumed to have contracted the disease when serving as an intern at the Beijing-based research institute of virus diseases under the Chinese centre for disease prevention and control from March 7 to 22. Another SARS patient, a medical doctor with the surname of Yang, also worked in the same institute.

Shortly after the occurrence of SARS epidemic, an expert team was set up consisting of members from china's academy of military medical sciences, and Beijing and National Disease Prevention and Control Centre. The team has probed the two cases and interviewed all the staff working at the laboratory of virology institute, the ministry said.

The experts also conducted field investigations and collected samples at the laboratory, which have been sent to two Chinese National Laboratories and a World Health Organisation (WHO) network laboratory for testing.

However, the expert team believes that more tests should be done on the samples, according to the ministry.

Bureau Report