<B>A medical</B> researcher in Taiwan has tested positive for SARS, the first case in Greater China since the flu-like virus killed hundreds of people and battered the region?s economies this year. Officials said yesterday that the man possibly contracted SARS about two weeks ago in a laboratory in the Taipei military hospital where he worked. He showed the first symptoms after he returned home from a seminar in Singapore.

The virus can be highly infectious but Singapore, the Southeast Asian city state that registered the world?s only other new case in September, said there were no signs of further SARS cases there. Officials in China also said they detected no new SARS infections while the World Health Organisation said the incident in Taiwan appeared to be an isolated case.

Health authorities have warned there could be a resurgence of the virus in the Northern Hemisphere winter, casting a shadow over economies that have bounced back from the crisis and are poised for strong growth in 2004.

A health department official in Taipei said the 44-year-old patient, who was stable and had no difficulty breathing, had travelled to Singapore between December 7 and 10. ?The patient had an accident in his lab on December 5 because he was hurrying to complete an experiment before going to Singapore,? said Su Ih-jen, director of Taiwan?s Center for Disease Control at the Department of Health.

News of the latest case spooked investors who suffered huge losses during the SARS epidemic. Stocks in Taiwan ended down 2,3 percent, while Singapore shares dipped by more than one percent. Airline stocks were among the worst affected, reflecting wider fears about the travel and tourism industry.

The patient, a senior scientist in the Institute of Preventive Medicine at the National Defence University, had been working on a government-commissioned project to study SARS. Thirty-seven people died directly from SARS in Taiwan this year, and a further 37 deaths were related to SARS. The latest case was the island?s first since the WHO lifted a travel warning in July.

Singapore, which has taken stringent precautions to avoid a recurrence of the disease, said it was investigating where the man spent his time while in the city and whom he saw. ?We?re trying to put all these pieces together,? said Karen Tan, a spokeswoman at the Ministry of Health. ?There are no signs at all of any new cases here.?

Singapore?s last known SARS case was a 27-year-old medical student who caught the disease in September while studying the virus at a government-run laboratory. He recovered.

Taiwan said there was little chance of the virus spreading from the one case. ?I urge the public not to panic as this is just an isolated case that occurred from an accident in a laboratory,? said Health Minister Chen Chien-jen. ?The patient?s family members have been confined to their home and haven?t developed any symptoms. The chances of it spreading to the greater population are not high,? Chen said. None of the patient?s six co-workers travelling with him to Singapore had developed symptoms and it was unnecessary to quarantine passengers on the December 10 flight, Chen said.

But the Taiwan government immediately escalated the alert level by requiring mandatory temperature checks at all public places. Travellers with fever are barred from leaving the island unless they are declared SARS-free by hospitals.

Most scientists say SARS probably spread from farms in China, perhaps jumping from animals such as civet cats, ducks, pigs and rats to humans. Experts say the biggest risk is of another jump from animals to humans.

Alice Hung