China's Health Ministry on Saturday announced a new confirmed case of SARS in Guangdong. The male patient has aleady been discharged from a hospital after full recovery.

A medical staff with the Guangdong Disease Prevention and Control Center studies the SARS virus through a microscope. [Xinhua]

The man is the fourth confirmed SARS case announced in the Chinese mainland this season.

The man, identified as a 40-year-old doctor from Guangzhou, the capital of southern Guangdong province, had been released recently, said Xinhua News Agency, without specifying when.

He became ill on Jan. 7, suffering from a high fever and a sore throat. He checked himself into a hospital in Guangzhou on Jan. 13, Xinhua said.

On Jan. 18, his temperature returned to normal and his condition stabilized.

This season's three other patients in the mainland — a businessman, a waitress and a television producer — have been released from the hospital in recent weeks. All were from Guangzhou.

Virus Pattern Revealed

On Friday, Chinese scientists announced a breakthrough in decoding the evolutionary pattern of the coronavirus.

Zhao Guoping, a noted researcher from the China National Human Genome Research Institute, said that an eight-month extensive study of the SARS coronavirus in southern China revealed patterns in various phases of the virus evolution.

A medical staff with the Guangdong Disease Prevention and Control Center studies the SARS virus through a microscope. [Xinhua]

Molecular analysis of virus isolated from SARS patients in Guangdong Province and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region demonstrated the initial phase of the epidemic was characterized by quick amino acid changes in the virus and relatively low infectivity.

The middle phase of virus evolution was marked by the "super- spreader case" and a slower amino acid substitution rate and high infectivity. The last phase of the epidemic saw a relatively stable virus genome structure.

The study also indicated the mutation rate of the coronavirus is a third of that of the AIDS virus.

Scientists analyzed the genetic coding of 18 virus samples isolated from 24 SARS patients in Guangdong and Hong Kong and 11 coronavirus-infected biological samples.

After comparing the genetic coding with those of the existing 32 human SARS coronavirus and two coronavirus of civet cats, scientists had a clearer understanding of the molecular mutational patterns of SARS, shedding light on pre-emptive control strategies and the development of therapies and vaccines for the virus, according to experts.

More than 60 scientists from Guangdong, Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan, Hong Kong and the United States, brought together by the Chinese SARS Molecular Epidemiology Consortium, agreed that effective monitoring and control of the newly emerged animal SARS coronavirus would contain the reappearance of last year's SARS outbreak.

The study is also widely expected to provide valuable reference for studies on other animal-sourced infectious diseases such as bird flu.

Thursday's issue of Science Magazine in the US published the latest outcome under the title "The Evolution of SARS."

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