DATE=9/9/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=ASIA SARS (SHORT)

NUMBER=2-307287

BYLINE=KATHERINE MARIA

DATELINE=HONG KONG

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

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INTRO: A number of tests have confirmed that a Singapore man has SARS. V-O-A's Katherine Maria reports from our Asia News Center in Hong Kong.

TEXT: Singapore's Department of Health on Tuesday confirmed that a hospital lab technician has contracted Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, the city's first new case in four months.

Doctors say the man had not traveled recently or come into contact with SARS patients. Singapore has quarantined at least 25 people who had been contact with the patient.

Singapore's Acting Minister of Health Khaw Boon Wan spoke to reporters.

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We are still checking to isolate the source of infection. His contacts, we have largely tracked them down and they are well.

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The case has raised alarm that the region may face a new outbreak of the disease, which can cause a severe form of pneumonia. In Hong Kong, health authorities say they have stepped up health monitoring in airports and hospitals.

SARS infected 84-hundred people, most of them in China, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Nine hundred patients died. (Signed)

NEB/HK/KM/KPD