A waitress in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province was
declared a suspected SARS case on Thursday, the second to emerge in
the province since the epidemic subsided last July.
The patient is now quarantined in the No. 8 People's Hospital of
Guangdong, said a report on the Nanfang Daily.
"A 20-year-old female restaurant waitress is suspected of having
the ailment after testing by a joint SARS medical team in Guangzhou
Wednesday," according to the report.
The patient is from central China's Henan Province. She was sent
to the Yuexiu District Bone Setting Hospital in Guangzhou after
having a fever from December 26, 2003, according to the
newspaper.
The patient was exposed to the public for the first time by
authorities on January 5.
Earlier in Hong Kong, Guangzhou Respiratory Disease Research
Institute Director Zhong Nanshan said the patient had tested
positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) antibody on
her first test. But Zhong added that more tests were to be
conducted on the 20-year-old patient to decide whether she was in
fact a suspected case or not.
The patient has had no fever for eight consecutive days, said
Guangzhou Municipal Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Deputy Director Wang Ming. Authorities have stepped up protective
measures for the medical staff.
"Our treatment for her has been exactly the same as treating a
suspected case," Xu said.?
Forty-eight people have been quarantined for close contacts with
the suspected case and 52 people put under medical observation for
normal contacts. None of them has developed a fever or shown other
symptoms of the deadly virus.
"What we have done is only for a perfectly safe purpose so as to
avoid even the slightest possibility of another outbreak of the
virus," said Xu Ruiheng, Guangdong Provincial CDC deputy
director.
The 32-year-old television producer, the only confirmed SARS
case contracted out of laboratory since last July, is expected to
be discharged from hospital today.
Only one person of the 81 people believed to be in contact with
him is still under medical observation.
All of others are said to be healthy, which indicates that there
has only been a single case and that chance of spreading was
effectively contained, experts said.
Meanwhile, Beijing Municipal Bureau of Health spokesperson Deng
Xiaohong Wednesday confirmed that Beijing has no SARS patients or
suspected cases so far.
Local public health departments in Beijing have conducted strict
measures to prevent the spread of SARS since late last month, when
the latest suspected case of SARS was found in Guangdong
Province.
Strict temperature monitoring was conducted upon passengers at
all municipal entry and exit points, including railway stations and
airports. Anybody with temperature of over 37.5 C will be sent to
designated hospitals as soon as possible.
A man named Cao Haiwen was sent to a special clinic by an
emergency team Wednesday night from the Beijing West Railway
Station after medical personnel found him with a temperature of
39.2 C while entering the station. With no other apparent SARS
symptoms, Cao was under observation Wednesday night. Doctors said
he may be discharged from hospital if his temperature drops under
38 C in 12 hours after treatment.
(China Daily January 8, 2004)