China: epidemiologist responsible for Sars otbreak fired

The chief of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was fired, as he was the one fingered at for letting virologists experiment with the SARS virus without authorization thus causing an outbreak, reports Straits Times.

Mr Li Liming and three of his deputies were admonished at a State Council meeting yesterday held to review April's Sars outbreak that infected nine people, one of whom died. The outbreak was contained by May.

According to deepika.com, a laboratory with China's National Disease Control and Prevention Centre was the source of the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) during Apirl and May of this year, health officials said.

Addressing a meeting held by the Ministry of Health, officials said investigation by the ministry in cooperation with the ministry of Sciences and Technology determined laboratory infection was to blame for the outbreak.

Officials said poor lab safety management and irregular operations by professionals resulted in the pollution of a laboratory and SARS virus infection of some lab staff members, which constitutes a major accident due to negligence.