China's first confirmed SARS patient this year was discharged from the hospital in east China's Anhui Province Monday morning.

The patient, a medical postgraduate surnamed Song, shook hands with leaders of the Anhui University of Medical Science where she studies, and waved to the waiting crowd after walking out of the ward.

Zhu Qixing, president of the hospital attached to the medical university, said Song has met all the requirements for being discharged.

Before leaving the isolation ward, she changed all her clothes and underwent thorough disinfection.

Song worked at the Beijing-based Institute of Virology under the Chinese Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) from March 7 to 22. When returned to Hefei, the capital of Anhui, by train on March 23 she felt ill and had a fever. She was diagnosed with SARS on April 23.

She was treated in the hospital with combined Western and traditional Chinese therapies.

Zhang Xuejun, president of the Anhui University of Medical Science, said that Song already has the SARS antibody and all live SARS virus in her body has been neutralized, which means she is no longer contagious.

According to the local health department, all 154 people who had close contact with Song have undergone medical observation. None have shown abnormal symptoms.

(Xinhua News Agency May 10, 2004)