China's last Sars patients recover

By Francis Markus
BBC, Shanghai

Chinese media say the country's last 12 Sars patients now have no more symptoms of the pneumonia-like disease and are no longer infectious, even though they are still in hospital with complications.

The news marks another sign that the illness, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which has killed 800 people world-wide, is at bay.

But no-one is quite daring to heave a final sigh of relief.

The disease spread from China world-wide claiming 800 lives, nearly 350 of them in China.

There is widespread relief at the news

After an initial cover-up, the country launched a large-scale mobilisation against the disease.

China's new President, Hu Jintao, who has come out of the episode with some political credit, has said the success was thanks to the Communist Party's staunch leadership and was more evidence of the superiority of socialism.

But while Sars has been defeated, there is still no cure.

Health experts say it is a good sign that it has not reared its head again in the last few months, but the World Health Organization has warned that it could still recur.

China itself says it is taking urgent measures to build up a system to tackle health emergencies, and its leaders are pondering with concern what to do about the fact that healthcare remains an unaffordable luxury for hundreds of millions of rural Chinese.