Nine More Being Tested in Hong Kong as SARS Fears Linger

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Nine residents of a Hong Kong home for the elderly were sent to a hospital for tests after suffering from fever and breathing problems amid fears that the SARS virus may be returning to the territory.

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Nine residents of a Hong Kong home for the elderly were sent to a hospital for tests after suffering from fever and breathing problems amid fears that the SARS virus may be returning to the territory.The Tseung Kwan O Hospital did not say whether the patients, aged between 81 to 93, were being tested for SARS, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.”Initial clinical diagnosis indicated that they suffered from respiratory tract infection,” the hospital said in a statement Thursday. “Further tests and examinations will be carried out.”The incident comes two days after seven inmates at a Hong Kong mental hospital were put in isolation after suffering fevers and breathing problems. They were later found to be suffering from flu but not the deadly SARS virus.Earlier this week, a 34-year-old woman who also had fever and breathing problems tested negative for SARS.Medical experts have repeatedly warned that the SARS virus, which killed more than 800 people worldwide this year after surfacing in southern China, could re-emerge in the winter months and that existing tests are not entirely reliable.The virus, which some scientists believe hopped to humans from animals, was carried to Hong Kong by a mainland Chinese visitor in February.Travelers than carried it to about 30 countries, infecting nearly 8,500 people in total, most of them in China and Hong Kong.(Source: Reuters, Thu September 18, 2003 02:54 PM ET)