A team of international experts are investigating how a Singapore lab worker caught SARS and how to prevent it from happening again, the health minister said Monday.

Acting Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan said the 10-member team _ comprised of local specialists as well as four experts from the World Health Organization and the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention _ met Monday morning to define the scope of the inquiry.

The 27-year-old post doctoral student tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome on Sept. 8, nearly two weeks after falling ill. Doctors have said he is recovering well and that he could be released from hospital as early as this week.
Authorities have been unable to pinpoint where he contracted the sometimes deadly respiratory illness, but suspect he may have been infected while handling live virus samples in a lab.

The man never knowingly handled SARS, however, as he was working exclusively on the West Nile bug, raising many questions about lab safety here.

``We are taking this opportunity to review with international experts and local experts to see should we 'harden' some of our procedures and if so, how?'' Khaw told a news conference.

``That is the main purpose of the inquiry, but of course along the way we need to explain how come this lab researcher became infected,'' he said.

Test results released by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed earlier tests by Singaporean authorities that the man was infected by SARS.
It marked Singapore's first SARS case since the WHO declared the city-state had successfully brought the virus under control in July.

The WHO has said it appears to be an isolated case and does not signal a new SARS outbreak.

The team, led by WHO bio-safety expert Dr. Anthony Della-Porta from Australia, is expected to offer recommendations to improve already tight safety regulations and security at Singapore's labs, Khaw said.

Khaw warned, however, that no system will be perfect and researchers still need freedom to work within their labs.

``It's like terrorism, you can harden (security) until nobody can enter hotels, but then you may as well close down the hotel,'' he said. ``Then we all are stranded.''
SARS has sickened 239 people in Singapore, of which 33 died. Globally, the disease killed over 900, out of more than 8,400 sickened.

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