Flight staff in Sydney SARS scare
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A Chinese poster warns against the spread of SARS.
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SYDNEY, Australia -- Two Chinese flight attendants in isolation in a Sydney hotel have been given the tentative all clear from having the potentially deadly SARS virus.
The China Southern Airline attendants were admitted to St Vincent's hospital on Wednesday after arriving in Sydney from the Chinese city of Guangzhou via Melbourne.
The two women had complained of fever and were showing other symptoms of SARS and were admitted to the Sydney hospital in New South Wales state.
"It is becoming clearer that the two people here in hospital at the moment do not have SARS," the acting director of the state's communicable diseases authority, Paul Armstrong, told a news conference.
"The test results so far and the clinical condition of the two people indicates that they do not ... have SARS."
Further test results are expected in the next few days to fully determine the condition of the women.
Guangzhou, capital of China's southern Guangdong province, is widely regarded as the epicenter of the SARS virus.
Australia did not report any cases of SARS during the major outbreak last year which killed nearly 800 people and sickened around 8,000.
But health officials say the action plan to prevent the spread of the virus implemented last year could be quickly reinstated should a fresh threat emerge.
"The message to the public is that we've got plans of action that exist to help contain SARS that worked very successfully last time," New South Wales State Health Minister Morris Iemma told The Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"Those plans are still there."
Elsewhere, a joint World Health Organization-China Ministry of Health team is travelling to the Guangxi Autonomous Region in China Thursday to assess the region's preparedness to cope with infectious diseases in general, and SARS in particular.
"Because of Guangxi's proximity to Guangdong province and the similarity of its climate and geographical setting, it seems wise for expert teams to offer their experience and support to Guangxi's health authorities," the WHO said in a statement released Wednesday.
"WHO hastens to note that we are aware of no SARS cases in Guangxi, and this trip is not being made in response to the appearance of any cases there."
The trip had been planned for two months, it said.
Meanwhile, the United States has imposed an immediate embargo on the import of civet cats because of suspicions that the mongoose-like animal has spread the SARS virus to humans in China, The Associated Press reports.
"This embargo will help us protect the American public and prevent introduction of SARS in the United States," Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said Tuesday.
While scientists have not found unequivocal evidence that the small tree-dwelling mammal is responsible for transmitting SARS to humans, they have found the SARS virus in civets and China has ordered the killing of thousands of the animals.
Copyright 2004 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
