Singapore's Ministry of Health confirmed today a 27-year-old man had contracted Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
It is the world's first case of the deadly virus since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global outbreak over on July 5th.
However, the WHO today declared the Singapore SARS case was not a "public health emergency".
"A repeat of the PCR tests was done at the National University Hospital laboratory today and was confirmed positive," the Singapore health ministry said in a statement, referring to PCR technology that amplifies genetic material in samples from patients to test for SARS.
Earlier, the authorities sealed off three wards at its largest hospital after preliminary tests indicated the man may have caught SARS.
Singapore General Hospital shut the wards to all visitors after the man, a virology laboratory worker, had tested positive late last night for the virus.
The new SARS infection inSingapore does not represent a general public health threat, the WHO spokesman said.
"From the public health perspective, this does not seem tobe an emergency," Mr Dick Thompson of the UN agency'scommunicable diseases division told reporters.
"We have rigid casedefinitions for SARS, and this person does not qualify," he added.
The potentially deadly respiratory disease originated in southern China and was spread early this year to 30 countries by travellers. It infected almost 8,500 people globally and more than 800 died, including 33 in Singapore.
The WHO, which declared the outbreak contained worldwide on July 5th, expressed some doubt about the latest case and said more tests were needed before determining whether the man - an ethnic Chinese Singaporean - had SARS.
Local media reports said the man was not involved in SARS-related research and had not travelled to China or Hong Kong recently.
He had checked into the accident and emergency department at Singapore General before being rushed late yesterday to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, whose staff exclusively treated SARS patients during Singapore's last outbreak of the virus.