- MANILA (Reuters) - The World
Health Organization (WHO), alarmed that both cases of SARS in the last
three months have been traced to laboratory accidents, said Friday it was
asking governments to ensure safety at research institutions.
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- A research scientist at a Taipei military hospital tested
positive for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome this week after possibly
contracting the disease in a laboratory accident two weeks ago, officials
in Taiwan said.
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- The only other SARS infection since WHO declared the
outbreak over in July has been of a research student in Singapore. He tested
positive for the potentially lethal disease after another laboratory accident
in September but later recovered.
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- Peter Cordingley, a spokesman for the WHO's Manila-based
Western Pacific headquarters, said his office was "talking with governments
and asking for an inventory" to assess safety and security at laboratories
handling the SARS virus.
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- "There should be no more cutting corners and procedures
should be followed to the letter," Cordingley told Reuters.
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- Governments in Asia are worried the flu-like disease,
which killed more than 800 people and battered some of the region's economies
earlier this year, could resurface over the winter.
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- Dr Shigeru Omi, the WHO's regional director, told reporters
Wednesday there appeared to be lax application of laboratory rules in the
case of the infected researcher in Taiwan.
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- "Initial information is he was not wearing a proper
gown and lab gear for protection," Omi said. "There were lapses
in WHO procedures."
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- Taiwan is not a member of the WHO.
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- Cordingley said the case in Taiwan should be a wake-up
call for researchers after the earlier incident in Singapore, but he acknowledged
that the WHO's influence stretched only so far.
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- "We are not the lab Interpol," he said. "We
can't go out busting laboratories and inspecting them."
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- Cordingley said the WHO's regional office, which covers
37 member states that are home to more than 1.6 billion people, had no
idea how many laboratories were dealing with the SARS virus, which first
surfaced in China in November 2002.
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- Wednesday, Omi had stressed the need for the highest
levels of safety in labs working with the virus and said the WHO's head
office in Geneva had offered expert and technical assistance to Taiwan.
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