Chinese authorities on alert as SARS breaks out again

China is on high alert following a fresh outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The index case is a 26 year old female laboratory researcher from Anhui province who worked for two weeks at the Chinese National Institute of Virology in Beijing, which is known to be investigating the SARS coronavirus.

The researcher, who developed symptoms of SARS on 25 March, subsequently infected her mother, who died, and a 20 year old nurse in a Beijing hospital where she was being treated. In turn the nurse is suspected of having infected her mother, father, aunt, and a fellow patient. A 31 year old laboratory researcher who also worked at the virology research laboratory is also suspected of having …