Guidelines on conducting SARS virus tests have been drawn up in accordance with World Health Organisation's recommendations and are available to the public and private sectors. For safety, these tests should be done only in public hospitals.

This was the message from Secretary for Health, Welfare & Food Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong in the Legislative Council today.

The Department of Health has distributed a guide to the private sector specifying the types of specimen to be collected, the transport medium, the patient's information to be submitted together with the specimen, and the proper means of transport for SARS samples, Dr Yeoh said.

The guide incorporates the WHO's recommendation on the use of laboratory methods for SARS diagnosis.

The Hospital Authority has also formulated a set of internal guidelines on arrangements for diagnostic tests for SARS in accordance with WHO's recommendations.

According to Dr Yeoh, the Government will closely monitor further WHO recommendations and ensure that laboratory testing and reporting systems are up to international standards.

WHO's guidelines on "Alert, verification and public health management of SARS in the post-outbreak period" advocate SARS tests should be conducted in a national or regional reference laboratory. 

Six public-sector labs to do SARS tests

There are six laboratories in the public sector which perform tests for diagnosis of the coronavirus responsible for SARS. They are located at Queen Mary Hospital, Prince of Wales Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital and Tuen Mun Hospital, and the Department of Health's Public Health Laboratory Centre.

These laboratories conduct tests in accordance with WHO standards and are responsible for all confirmatory tests in the diagnosis of the SARS coronavirus.