Suspected Sars case in Singapore

Singapore instituted tough measures to control the disease

Singapore is to carry out further tests on a man who may have contracted the Sars virus, the Ministry of Health has announced.

If confirmed, the patient would be the first new case of the pneumonia-like respiratory disease in five months.

The possible case was discovered during routine screening of an ethnic Chinese man at Singapore General Hospital.

Sars originated in China late last year and killed more than 800 people before being contained in July.

Singapore recorded 33 deaths from the disease, and infected another 328.

Singapore imposed harsh measures to control Sars, including the possibility of involuntary confinement of suspected sufferers.

The hospital will carry out further tests on Monday night, and the health ministry will hold a press conference on Tuesday at 1600 local time (0800GMT).

The possible case was spotted hours after the head of the World Health Organisation warned that the disease could re-appear.

"None of us can predict what will happen later this year," director general Lee Jong-wook told a regional conference of health specialists.

"We have to prepare on the assumption that this will come back," he added.

A WHO spokesman said the disease - which is believed to have jumped from animals to humans - could do so again.

"We think it's quite likely lurking in the wild animal population in southern China. There's absolutely no guarantee it won't jump the species barrier again and come back," spokesman Peter Cordingley told the Reuters news agency.