All civet cats ordered slaughtered by end of week in China

BEIJING -- China on Monday confirmed its first SARS case since an outbreak of the disease was contained in July, and authorities ordered an emergency slaughter of civet cats and other species thought linked to SARS' transmission be completed by the end of the week.

The Philippines also isolated a woman and her husband who might be infected, triggering fears across Asia that a second season of the highly contagious illness might be at hand.

The announcement by Guangdong provincial officials carried by the official Xinhua News Agency said authorities issued the order to "kill all civet cats before Jan. 10 in an urgent measure to contain a possible outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome." It gave no details.

Civets and other related wildlife, considered delicacies in southern China, are one suspected vector in the transfer of severe acute respiratory syndrome from animals to humans. Though the virus has been found in the weasel-like mammals, however, no definitive link has been established.

China announced plans Monday to kill some 10,000 civet cats in Guangdong wildlife markets, saying it believed the newly confirmed SARS case -- a 32-year-old man who is recovering -- could be linked to the animals. The World Health Organization said it had no hard evidence of that.

It wasn't clear when the cull would begin -- or who would carry it out and under what circumstances.

SARS case confirmed

The Chinese Health Ministry said the illness contracted by a 32-year-old television producer in the southern province of Guangdong "has been confirmed as a diagnosed case" of SARS. The World Health Organization in Beijing also confirmed the case as SARS.

"Based on the combined tests of the Ministry of Health and Guangdong provincial health experts, the suspected SARS case has been confirmed," the ministry said on its Web site. "This is the first case of SARS since it was effectively controlled last year."

In the Philippines, officials quarantined a woman in a Manila hospital when she developed a fever after flying from Hong Kong. They also quarantined her husband after he became feverish. "We are waiting for a test to confirm if she has SARS," health department official Dennis Magat said.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome, a form of atypical pneumonia, first broke out in Guangdong in November 2002. It infected more than 8,000 people and killed 774 worldwide -- mostly in Asia -- before it was brought under control in June.

A battery of previous tests at mainland Chinese labs on the man, who was hospitalized on Dec. 20, had proven inconclusive, and his samples were examined by scientists in Hong Kong during the weekend. By Monday, the ministry said, "all the results show that the man has contracted the SARS virus."

The patient's condition was stable Monday, the government said, and those who came into contact with him have shown no symptoms of SARS.

Still, it warned the Chinese public: "Be vigilant."

The confirmation represented the first known case of SARS contracted in China since July -- and the first this season to come from the general population. Two other cases -- in Singapore and Taiwan -- were linked to researchers who apparently had been exposed in labs.

All of Guangdong's wildlife markets were ordered closed Monday, Feng Liuxiang, deputy director of the province's health department, said on national television.

The WHO urged the Chinese government to be cautious in its planned slaughter of the civet cats, saying a reckless culling could eliminate evidence of the origins of the disease. "We could indeed be destroying the evidence," WHO animal expert Dr. Jeffrey Gilbert said at a news conference in Beijing.

Researchers at Hong Kong University said they had found similarities between a virus in the civet cats and in the suspected SARS patient, suggesting the disease might have recently jumped from animals.

"We will take resolute measures to close all the wildlife markets in Guangdong and to kill the civet cats," Feng said on China Central Television.

Zhong Nanshan, director of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases, said species related to civet cats also will be killed, including raccoon dogs, Chinese ferret badgers, hog badgers and Eurasian badgers. It wasn't immediately clear how many animals in all might be slaughtered.

SARS killed 349 people on China's mainland before subsiding in June.

China banned trade in civets and 53 other wild animals in April amid sweeping efforts to stop the spread of SARS. That prohibition was lifted in August despite warnings by scientists that the animals might still be a health threat.

Meanwhile, stringent tests on air travelers continued across Asia.

Hong Kong stepped up health surveillance at border checkpoints and added new hospital controls. Health Secretary Dr. Yeoh Eng-kiong said health workers will test all pneumonia patients -- at both public and private facilities -- who had traveled to Guangdong in the last 10 days for SARS and track down their recent contacts.