A set of guidelines for treating suspected SARS patients is being discussed at a medical seminar in Guangzhou to overcome a major obstacle to effectively combating the epidemic: misdiagnosis.

The ratio of misdiagnosed cases ranged from 30 to 40 per cent during the outbreak earlier this year, New Express News quoted medical experts at the seminar as saying.

The fear of being herded together with SARS patients deterred many from seeking timely treatment. And their fears were not without reason - some suspected SARS patients were later found to have contracted the disease after being admitted to quarantine wards.

The early symptoms of SARS are similar to pneumonia, a disease most doctors have not had that much experience treating. Major hospitals in Guangzhou average about 1.5 pneumonia cases every day, said Chen Rongchang, deputy director of the Guangzhou Respiratory Disease Research Institute.

There is no standard diagnostic procedure for SARS, which will cause confusion should the disease recur, Chen said.

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