A New Zealand man on a tour of China has been hospitalized with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in the northwest Shaanxi Province, the Shaanxi health authority reported Tuesday.
The 39-year-old man was identified as a suspected SARS case when he was about to board flight HU7881 from Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi, to Beijing on Sunday.
The man, who was discovered to have a high fever at the airport,was confirmed to have the pneumonia-like disease on Monday eveningby experts in Xi'an. He is now in quarantine and receiving treatment.
He was on an eight-day Beijing-Wuhan-Chongqing-Xi'an-Beijing tour organized by the China Travel Service.
The provincial health department has asked the airline and the city to register and investigate the names and contacts of all travelers on the same flights with the patient.
The hotel where the patient stayed has been asked to be disinfected. Tour guides, bus drivers and those who had close contact with the New Zealand man have been quarantined.
This is the second SARS case reported in this province. The first case of a local Xi'an female resident was reported on Monday.
(Xinhua News Agency April 23, 2003)
