World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday praised the Chinese government for its prompt action in dealing with the latest case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in south China.

"It is working much better," said WHO spokesman Dick Thompson.

"Our teams have been invited to Guangdong to work (with the Chinese scientists) side by side in hospitals there," Thompson said.

"The health authorities in Guangdong and the Ministry of Health in China have been aggressive in seeking out cases, in seeking out contacts, and in reporting promptly about these cases," he added.

He reiterated that it is critically important to find out the source of the confirmed SARS case in China's southern Guangdong Province.

"Because he does not seem to have any known links (to SARS virus), he hasn't been to hospitals, and he hasn't been near health workers," the spokesman said.

A 32-year-old freelance TV worker, who was the first confirmed SARS patient in China's mainland after the spring outbreak of the epidemic in 2003, left the hospital on Jan. 8.

(Xinhua News Agency January 14, 2003)