With the arrival of the delivery of the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) reagent imported from a Germaninstitute, China's Macao Special Administrative Region has been able to carry out its own tests to verify Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) infection, the SARS taskforce announced here Friday.
Kun Sai Hoi, director of the Macao Center of Disease Preventionand Control and a member of the SARS taskforce, said that the center has tried the PCR test method on respiratory secretion samples of a confirmed SARS patient and a suspected patient, which turned out to be positive and negative, respectively.
The test method will be put into official use as an assistant testification in diagnosing SARS infection from next Monday, Kun said.
He added that Macao will continue to send patients' samples to the Hong Kong Health Department for proof-test in order to obtain a more reliable test result.
Macao has placed a purchase of PCR reagent enough for 50 tests.Technology and equipment for carrying out the test has been available now, Kun said.
Macao only recorded one confirmed SARS patient, who is a Macao resident working in south China's Guangdong Province. He is in stable recovery in the isolation ward of the Government Hospital of Macao, according to the SARS taskforce.
SARS suspicion of a 30-year-old Hong Kong businessman hospitalized in Macao was ruled out by the dual PCR tests conducted in Macao and Hong Kong Thursday. There is no other suspected SARS case in Macao till Friday. Enditem
(Xinhua News Agency May 23, 2003)
