WHO detectives arrive in Beijing to probe outbreak

China an additional suspected SARS case yesterday as international medical detectives took aim at the virus' most recent outbreak, hoping to sniff out how it got loose -- and whether lab procedures were to blame.

Just the announcement of one more suspected case by the Health Ministry, a woman in critical condition, the World Health Organization (WHO) amplified anew what it has said in recent days: The miniature outbreak "appears to be under control."

Quarantines for people who came in contact with the two newest confirmed SARS cases -- in Beijing and in Anhui Province. About 1,000 people remained in isolation yesterday, WHO said, with 600 in Beijing and more than 300 in Anhui.

Members a WHO team were arriving in Beijing yesterday, the official newspaper China Daily reported. WHO said the team of about a dozen specialists came at the government's request and includes experts on infection control and laboratory biosafety. They will work in both Beijing and Anhui.

"There's no significant public health threat from SARS in China," WHO spokesman Bob Dietz said. "The situation appears to be under control."

But, Dietz said, "China is pretty much on red alert."

In a new outbreak in the past week, China has announced two confirmed cases and seven suspected cases, including the one disclosed yesterday. All were linked to the National Institute of Virology, a Beijing lab where investigators suspect workers caught and spread the disease.

"It seems plausible, though not proven" that the first case became infected at the institute, WHO said in a statement on Tuesday night.

Authorities a 26-year-old lab worker named Song, in Beijing, passed SARS to a 31-year-old nurse named Li, whose father, mother, aunt and roommate also are ill and are suspected SARS cases. Song returned to Anhui and her mother died shortly thereafter, and experts suspect SARS.

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