Guangdong is where the first ever case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome appeared two years ago, and seasonal factors are making the control of any potential outbreak of either SARS or bird flu more difficult.

"We don't know if SARS will return, it could come back, it might not come back, but all the same we are stepping up surveillance and detection work," Feng Shaoming, head of the Guangdong Center for Disease Control (CDC) told AFP.

"We are monitoring patients with fevers, we have set up isolated fever clinics in all hospitals. Everything is being put into place.

"We are watching the animals, like civet cats and birds like chickens. People should not get too close to these animals. Stay away. This is important," he said.

During the winter of 2002 and 2003, SARS ravaged China and spread around the world killing some 800 people and infecting over 8,000 in an epidemic that drew global attention.

Only a handful of cases, mainly linked to bad sanitation measures at a medical laboratory in Beijing, appeared during the 2003-2004 winter, further underscoring the effectiveness of medical measures that the country has taken.

This year, if SARS does come back, doctors will be armed with a newly developed vaccine which if effective could greatly limit fatalities, Feng said.

The new vaccine was developed by Chinese researchers, with initial tests showing that SARS antibodies had taken hold in patients given the vaccine in summer trials with no evident side-effects.

Animal tests earlier proved effective.

Still, Guangdong has set up plans on how to handle cases if and when they appear, Ma Weilin, an official at the sanitation and disinfection department of the Guangzhou city CDC told AFP.

"January and February are the coldest months, so we are very busy right now making sure that everything is in place," Ma said.

"The Lunar New Year is the most dangerous time, as a lot of people are travelling so all hospital and clinics are on the alert for fevers and colds."

Provincial-level experts have been ordered to be at the side of any patient suspected to have either SARS or bird flu within 12 hours of suspect symptoms first being reported, he said.

Experts were expected to immediately isolate suspect patients and identify and place under medical surveillance all other people who have had close contact with them, he said.

The virus has been largely sourced to the civet cat, a weasel like animal that has become a culinary delicacy in southern China. Other animals that Cantonese favor as delicacies, like raccoon dogs, snakes and pangolins were also found to carry the virus.

Medical experts are still uncertain how the SARS coronavirus jumped from the civet to humans, or how the civet came to be infected with it, Feng said.

Coronaviruses are one of the viruses that cause the common cold, but the SARS coronavirus was unknown before the 2003 outbreak. Its chain of human-to-human transmission drew great concern from the medical community.

Chinese experts were also closely monitoring outbreaks of bird flu in neighboring Vietnam and Thailand, where 41 people have died from avian influenza.

Nine of the deaths have occurred in Vietnam since December 30.

The avian flu differs from SARS as no human-to-human cases have been confirmed, with people getting the virus directly from infected birds.

If efficient and sustained human-to-human transmissions of the bird flu occur, then an influenza pandemic could develop resulting in high rates of illness and death, experts believe.

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