• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Philippines declares woman free of SARS

Hospital Safety Connection, January 13, 2004

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Hospital Safety Connection!

Health officials in the Philippines on January 7 declared a woman free of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and released dozens of people from home quarantine, the Associated Press reports.

Laboratory tests showed that a 42-year-old Filipino domestic worker, who had fallen ill with SARS-like symptoms after she returned from Hong Kong on December 20, had bacterial pneumonia. She and her husband were isolated in a Manila medical institute on January 4.

Health officials also lifted home quarantine orders imposed on 38 people, who may have been in contact with the woman. None exhibited any SARS symptoms.

Meanwhile, Chinese officials this week began slaughtering thousands of civet cats and rats to eliminate them as possible sources of SARS. A 32-year-old man is currently recovering from SARS, which he may have caught after touching a mouse in his house.

In recent months, two people in Taiwan and Singapore became infected with SARS in laboratory accidents. They are the first SARS cases since the World Health Organization declared the global outbreak over last July; the initial outbreak killed 774 people and sickened thousands worldwide.

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Hospital Safety Connection!

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive