The first patient confirmed to have contracted Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Saturday night was in stable condition without any difficulties in breathing, said Lei Chin Ion, head of the Government Hospital of the Macao Special Administrative Region government.
PCR test of his respiratory secretion, which was given by the Hong Kong Health Department Saturday night, suggested positive of coronavirus.
The patient, who only had a high fever, had been admitted into an ordinary ward for observation, where he shared room with two other patients, before the PCR test result was handed down.
The two other patients have been moved to isolation wards Saturday, and a doctor, three nurses and a paramedic worker, who had contacted the SARS patient without being adequately armed with personal protective equipment, have been separated in isolation camps earlier set up in Coloane Island of Macao.
The patient, a 29-year-old Macao resident, is an air-conditioner maintenance worker, who had been employed in Zhuhai city, south China's Guangdong province, which neighbors Macao across a land checkpoint. He began to have a fever and cough a week ago, and went back to seek medical help in the Government Hospital of Macao on May 8, when initial pneumonia symptoms were found.
(Xinhua News Agency May 11, 2003)
