SARS patient 'fully recovered'
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Wildlife markets in Guangdong are being closed.
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Experts believe the SARS virus is rooted in Chinese animal markets. CNN's Mike Chinoy reports (Contains graphic images).
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BEIJING, China -- Asia has started to take steps towards protecting its people against SARS as a Chinese man was pronounced "fully recovered" from the deadly virus.
China starting culling 10,000 civets Tuesday in a bid to curb a new SARS outbreak, despite concerns from the World Health Organization.
And in the Philippines, health officials said they had isolated and were observing 38 people who were possibly in contact with a woman suspected of contracting SARS.
They were also awaiting test results for the 42-year-old Philippine woman at the center of the scare, but her condition was reported to have improved.
The World Health Organization said it was unlikely she was suffering from SARS. Its Philippines representative, Jean Marc Olive, described it as a "very, very remote possibility," The Associated Press reported.
In China, the government said the 32-year-old television producer from Guangdong, who tested positive for the disease Monday, would be released from hospital Thursday after a full recovery, AP said.
Health experts are still trying to work out how he was exposed, in what was the country's first SARS case since July.
The first case of what would be called severe acute respiratory syndrome was recorded in the southern province of Guangdong in November 2002. It killed 58 people there and sickened more than 1,500.
When the first SARS cases emerged in China a year ago officials covered them up, and the disease grew into a full-blown epidemic, killing 774 people around the world and sickening nearly 8,100.
In mainland China alone it killed 349 people, with more than 5,000 falling ill.
This time, the Chinese response has been quick and forthcoming, and WHO experts are optimistic Beijing has learnt its lesson, and the disease is containable.
For its part, neighboring Hong Kong has stepped up health checks at border crossings into mainland China.
To counter the latest outbreak, officials in China began slaughtering the civets and related species on Tuesday, putting them in cages to drown them and then cremating them in deep pits. The government says it wants the slaughter completed by Saturday.
Little is known about the origins of SARS other than it sprang up in Guangdong province in November 2002.
Many scientists believe SARS spread from farms and made the jump from animals to humans.
But the WHO has warned that a reckless culling of the suspected SARS carriers could eliminate evidence of the origins of the disease.
Civets -- which are not actually felines -- are weasel-like creatures considered a delicacy in wild game restaurants in southern China.
Calling the slaughter a "radical step," WHO animal expert Dr. Jeffrey Gilbert said it would have to be carried out carefully to avoid contaminating people and places.
China outlawed the trade of civets for four months last year, but Beijing later rescinded the ban.
In a CNN investigation in November, CNN's Mike Chinoy saw civets and other animals for sale while held in unsanitary conditions. (Smelly and depressing place)
-- CNN's Jaime FlorCruz and The Associated Press contributed to this report
