A total of 19 cases of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)
have been reported in India with some suspected SARS patients
having been under quarantine, health officials confirmed here on
Wednesday.
Nine more people were confirmed to be positive for the dreaded SARS
virus on Wednesday in Pune, 1400 kilometers southwest of here,
while preliminary tests revealed that one person in the northwest
state of Punjab might be afflicted with the disease, according to
the Press Trust of India (PTI).
Nine contacts of Stanley D'Silva Hospital in Pune had tested SARS
positive. Majority of them were hospital staff, PTI said, adding
that all of the new cases did not have any symptoms of the disease
and did not have any fever. They were under home quarantine.
In
New Delhi, Director General of Health Services S. P. Agarwal told
the press that the total number of SARS cases in the country now
stood at 19.
A
65-year-old man in Amritsar, a border town in Punjab 440 kilometers
northwest of here, had tested SARS positive in the initial
polymerase chain reaction test.
However, Agarwal said, his status had yet to be confirmed through
gene sequencing. The chest X-ray of the man had shown atypical
pneumonia, but he did not have history of traveling to an affected
country or being in contact with a SARS patient, Agarwal added.
Doctors and health official are now waiting results of 12 suspected
SARS cases.
Of
the 19 SARS positive cases, two are in the east state of West
Bengal, 14 in the west state of Maharashtra and one each in New
Delhi, southwest coastal city of Goa and the southern state of
Tamil Nadu.
(Xinhua News Agency April 30, 2003)