The test, developed by the National Taiwan University, works by detecting the SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) antigens in specimens collected from the patients, according to the Min Sheng Daily.

"The testings have displayed a high degree of accuracy," the paper cited Chang Ming-fu, head of the university's Graduate Institute of Biochemistry and Molecularbiology, as saying.

The new test can help identify Severe Acute Respiratory Syndromeinfection much earlier than existing methods which detect the antibodies of SARS-CoV, the paper said.

A SARS patient may not be tested positive to an antibody until more than 28 days after illness onset and possibly longer.

In addition, researchers at the university have also developed a new method to collect specimens from the saliva of the patients by rinsing the mouth with water, the paper said.

Compared with the traditional procedure of collecting specimens from the throat, the new method will reduce healthcare workers' risk of being exposed to SARS virus, it said.

The pneumonia-like disease broke out in China's southern Guangdong province in November last year and later spread to and caused mass outbreaks in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Vietnam.

It killed 774 people out of 8,098 cases worldwide, according to the latest toll of World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO on September 26 revised Taiwan's death toll from the epidemic down from 180 to 37 after ruling that 143 of the fatalities on the initial list had not in fact died from the disease.

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