| ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
UK has first confirmed SARS case
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Government health authorities Thursday reported the first confirmed case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in the United Kingdom. Laboratory testing "provided a positive result for the SARS coronavirus on one existing probable SARS case," the Health Protection Agency said in a written statement. Citing confidentiality concerns, authorities would not identify the patient, but said the patient recovered and "there was no evidence of onward transmission."
Since reporting began in March, eight people in Britain have been classified as probable SARS cases. Four individuals' symptoms were found to have been caused by something other than SARS, said Maria Zambon, head of the Health Protection Agency's respiratory virus unit. "Of our remaining four probable cases, we have completed our coronavirus antibody response testing on two and found one to be positive and one negative," she said. Coronavirus is the pathogen that the WHO has identified as the cause of the illness, which has no known treatment. "Although one case has been found to be negative, WHO definitions require such cases to remain in the probable category. This leaves us with three probable cases and one confirmed case of SARS in the UK," Zambon said. All of those with probable cases have been discharged from hospital and there is no evidence of onward transmission to any of their close contacts. To date, 159 suspected cases of SARS in the UK have been reported to the HPA's Communicable Disease Surveillance Center.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
