09 January 2004	Friday	16 Ziqa'ad 1424

BEIJING, Jan 8: China reported a new suspected Sars case on Thursday after releasing its only confirmed patient, as a team of World Health Organisation experts headed to the south to find answers.

Officials in the southern province of Guangdong said a 20-year-old waitress was under quarantine at a hospital in the capital Guangzhou with symptoms of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

Sars first broke out in China and caused a global crisis last year, killing about 800 people and infecting around 8,000. China was worst affected, followed by Hong Kong, and the recent cases mark a resurfacing of the pneumonia-like disease.

The woman at centre of the latest case, who reportedly worked at a wildlife restaurant, developed a fever on Dec 26 and has been hospitalized since Dec 31, a local government statement said. Her condition was now stable.

The announcement coincided with the discharge from hospital of a 32-year-old-television journalist, China's first Sars case in six months. Medical teams have disinfected the area where the waitress lived and quarantined 48 people who had close contact with her, while monitoring another 52 people who had some contact with her. None have shown Sars symptoms so far.

WHO officials said Thursday they had no further information on her, but that samples from the woman were in Beijing for testing.

"We'd like more information on it," said Roy Wadia, a Beijing WHO spokesman. A WHO spokeswoman from Geneva said Thursday WHO wanted samples from the woman to be double-checked by an independent laboratory, like the last case.-AFP