The World Health Organization offered New Year praise to China on Friday for its efforts in containing the SARS virus, but stressed that it was too early to say the health scare was over.

The third Chinese patient diagnosed with SARS this year left hospital on the first day of the Year of the Monkey on Thursday, following the discharge of two others with clean bills of health.

 

"Contact tracing is working pretty well and the system in place is far stronger than last year," WHO spokesman Roy Wadia told Reuters, praising China's practice of isolating suspect cases for 14 days.

 

"But it is too early to say there won't be any more cases."

 

SARS first emerged in Guangdong in late 2002 and was spread by travelers to more than 30 countries, infecting about 8,000 people and killing nearly 800.

 

Hundreds of millions of Chinese are on the move during the Lunar New Year break, sparking tighter health controls at all ports, railway stations and airports.

 

A center for disease prevention and control had even been set up the far-flung autonomous region of Tibet, Xinhua said.

 

(China Daily January 24, 2004)