HEALTH officials should consider closing Bradford College and Bradford University to protect Ilkley lecturers from a deadly virus, parish councillors have suggested.

Parish councillor Audrey Brand told a meeting this week that she had been contacted by worried college lecturers who lived in Ilkley.

She said they feared Chinese students going home for the Easter break could become infected and pass on the virus when they returned to college.

The killer virus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is believed to have come from Hong Kong and the Guangdong province of China.

Britons have been warned not to travel to either area. So far the virus has claimed 100 lives worldwide and infected 2,600 people in 18 countries.

At Ilkley Town Hall this week, Coun Brand said: "The people who are worried about it are lecturers and tutors who work in Bradford College and Bradford University where there is a great input of Chinese students. These people live in Ilkley and Menston."

She said the students would be going home and their teachers were worried about what might happen when they came back.

Coun Brand said health officials should consider taking precautionary or even preventative measures to make sure the students could not inadvertently spread the virus.

Coun Brand said she had spoken to health officials about the problem who had promised to contact the colleges advising that travel should be kept to a minimum.

But Councillor Lexa Robinson suggested that even more radical measures could be taken to ensure that the virus did not affect the lecturers.

Coun Robinson said: "Is it not possible in our country to do the same thing as in Singapore and close the universities until the problem has been corrected?" But Coun Anne Hawkesworth said that until Foreign Office guidelines had been changed, nothing could be done to prevent the students travelling home and returning after the holiday.

She said: "A lot of our Chinese students have gone home. I personally think there is no way we can prevent them from returning."

Parish council chairman Michael Gibbons cautioned against over-reacting against the health scare.

He said: "At this stage it is fair to say that we have had similar scares with meningitis at universities. To actually close the university would be a huge step."

Following the meeting, Dr Ruth Gelletlie, Bradford's consultant in communicable disease control, said that she had regular meetings with the Dean of Students at the university to discuss health issues.

Overseas students have been issued with travel guidelines and Dr Gelletlie said she was keeping a close eye on the situation, taking advice from the Chief Medical Officer and the World Health Organisation as well as having on-going discussions with local health officers.

At present the health authorities had no plans to close either Bradford College or Bradford University.

According to a spokesman for the lecturers' union, the Association of University Teachers: "Risks are bound to vary within the university as a workplace. For example, it may be anticipated that there may be higher risks within a teaching hospital environment and, of course, in student health services and medical practices in and around campus."

A seasoned Ilkley traveller and Bradford University lecturer is Doctor Robert Conningham. Archaeologist Dr Conningham's research trips have taken him to many exotic locations such as India, Pakistan, Iran, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, without picking up a serious health problem.

Dr Conningham, of Maufe Way, said: "Generally, if you are careful about what you drink and get the right injections you will be fine.

"However, if someone offered me a trip to the Far East at the moment I would not go."

Dr Conningham said that the problem of picking up a virus was increased by flying because aeroplane passengers breathed recycled air on long journeys.

He is presently spending a year on home research so has not been attending the university recently.

A spokesman for Bradford University said: "For the staff and students we have passed on the World Health Organisation advice recommending members of the public not to travel to Hong Cong or to Guangdong province of China."

The spokesman said there were no plans to close the university, which teaches students from as many as 110 countries, because of the SARS outbreak.

A spokesman for Bradford College said that health advice from various bodies had been passed on to staff and students.

"The word we're getting from students is that their families are advising them to stay here and not go home," said the spokesman.