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A Filipino woman, who came from China's Hong Kong, was suspected of contracting SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and has been isolated at a hospital in Manila for checking, a Philippine health official said Monday.
The woman has a fever and the laboratory is conducting tests whether the patient contracts the flu-like virus that causes SARS, the results of which may be out Monday afternoon, Doctor Villa told Xinhua.
"We're still waiting for details of the investigation," Villa said, stressing that it was a suspected case.
The doctor who initially treated the woman has reportedly also been isolated as a precautionary measure but has shown no symptoms.
Officials were tracing the contact history of the woman, who arrived in the Philippines from Hong Kong on Dec. 20, 2003, the ABS-CBN on-line news quoted health official Yolanda Oliveros as saying.
The woman was not identified, and no details were released about her work in Hong Kong, where thousands of Filipino women work as nurses and domestic helpers.
The SARS outbreak last year killed about 800 people when it was spread around the world by travelers, most of whom were in Asia while the death toll in the Philippines reaching only two with strict screening measures taken at its borders.
Fears of a resurgence over this winter have been sparked by the infection of a researcher in China's Taiwan and an accident at a laboratory in Singapore that was studying the virus.
Chinese officials are also studying a television producer suspected of carrying a mutated strain of SARS.
(Xinhua News Agency January 5, 2004)
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