PROTECTIVE masks have been sent to GPs across north Hampshire and a special sign put up in the casualty department at Basingstoke hospital as health chiefs implement measures to prevent an outbreak of the SARS virus in the area.

So far, SARS - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - has claimed the lives of more than 300 people across the world, while more than 4,600 people have been infected. Outbreaks have sparked major health alerts in several countries, in-cluding China and Canada.

In Britain, six cases have so far been reported. Yesterday, the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Sir Liam Donaldson, said it may become necessary to declare SARS a notifiable disease, which would enable officials to force people to get treatment, destroy material exposed to the disease and make it a public duty not to expose others to the risk.

It has now been revealed that four patients at Basingstoke hospital have been checked for infection with the deadly virus. However, a doctor has told The Gazette that the four were found to have other, mild viral illnesses.

Consultant microbiologist Dr Fatima El Bakri said the cases were not suspicious enough for samples to be sent for analysis to the Health Protection Laboratory, in Colindale.

She said: "Of course, we are getting queries and people asking. But we have not sent away a single sample."

Dr El Bakri said a sign has been put up in the accident and emergency department asking people who have been abroad within the last 10 days to sit in a separate waiting area. She added that they will also be treated separately.

Dr El Bakri said guidelines have been laid down for the isolation of suspected SARS cases arriving at the hospital.

Staff treating suspected SARS cases have also been told to pay attention to hand-washing, wear the right kind of masks with filters and to wear gowns covering the whole body instead of simple aprons.

In-patients with SARS would also have to wear masks, said Dr El Bakri, but some with mild infections could be treated at home.

She said: "You need close contact with people if you are to get it. I don't think masks worn in the street are necessary and you won't get it by coming across people in the supermarket."

While masks have been distributed to GPs in north Hampshire as a precaution against the virus, Dr Linda Booth, consultant in communicable disease control with the Health Protection Agency in Basingstoke, said no cases of the pneumonia-like illness have been reported in north Hampshire.

She said so far there have been a handful nationally, but as yet there are no signs of the disease spreading within the country.

She added: "We advise that if you suspect you may have this illness, you telephone your doctor for advice first, rather than turn up in his waiting room.

"The vast majority of people returning from overseas with temperatures, cough and other symptoms will have ordinary chest infections, or the ordinary strains of the flu virus."

Advice can also be sought by calling NHS Direct on 0845 4647 or by visiting the website www.phls.co.uk