Thailand reported its eighth SARS case on Thursday, but the Public Health Ministry insisted it's an imported case, according to local press report on Friday.
The latest patient infected with SARS was a Thai business woman at her 40s, the Public Health Department declared without revealing her name.
The woman visited London between April 5 and 11 when the city was listed as an area with local transmission of SARS by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Disease Control Department' Director-General Charal Trinwuthiphong was quoted by The Nation newspaper as saying.
The patient was admitted to an unidentified hospital in Bangkok after she had been diagnosed with SARS.
Relatives of the patient who had been in close contact with her were also quarantined at the same hospital, while other family members considered at lower risk were advised to stay at home and watch for possible symptoms.
Director of the Epidemiology division Kammnuan Ungchusak said the patient had not had a fever for the past four days and was expected to be discharged from the hospital soon, according to the Bangkok Post newspaper.
Thailand reported its first SARS case in late March, when Italian doctor Carlo Urbani was found infected with the disease after his return from Vietnam.
The country so far has reported altogether eight SARS cases, of them, two patients died and four have recovered.
(Xinhua News Agency April 25, 2003)
