Singapore SARS patient released

SINGAPORE, Sept. 16 - The world’s first known SARS patient since the virus was brought under control in July has recovered and was discharged Tuesday, a Singapore health official said.

THE 27-YEAR-old lab researcher had been in isolation at Singapore’s Communicable Diseases Center. He will remain quarantined at home for two weeks.

The man tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome last week, making Singapore the first country to report a case of the deadly flu-like illness since the World Health Organization declared SARS under control in July.

Bey Mui Leng, a Singapore Ministry of Health spokeswoman, said a team of investigators, including experts from the WHO and the U.S. Centers for Diseases Control, is still studying how the man contracted the illness.

He worked at two labs that handled the virus but said he never knowingly handled it. The man said he was working exclusively on the West Nile virus.

SARS sickened more than 8,400 people around the world, of which about 900 died, after it was first reported in November. Thirty-three died in Singapore.

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