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(Photograph) - A student who has just returned to Newcastle University from her home in China complained this week that people were avoiding her for fear of catching Sars, writes Nigel Burnham.

Elva Wu, a second-year economics student, had been on a trip to Shandong province.

Since her return to the UK, she has visited a doctor three times to be checked for Sars and has been given the all-clear. But she said she was still being ostracised.

The university and the local Communicable Disease Control Unit are asking students "not to respond with undue alarm".

A spokeswoman said: "There is a bit of nervousness around, but there's no hysteria."