Suspected cases of coronavirus reported in Hyderabad
Not so long back, a new virus called Nipah appeared in India from nowhere and claimed 17 lives. Now, a new virus called ‘Coronavirus’ has killed 81 people in China and infected almost 3,000 people, with cases confirmed in several countries.
While the new virus started casting its shadows over the people, four suspected cases of the coronavirus (2019-nCoV) have been reported in Hyderabad. Though two of their blood samples tested negative for the virus, the results of the other two samples are yet to come. The four persons, whose blood samples have been sent for tests, had recently travelled to China and walked into the state-run Fever hospital fearing that they may have contracted the virus, which is a novel strain not seen before.
“There are no positive cases. Some people who travelled to those regions (China) had approached us with the apprehension that they may be infected, so we sent their samples (for tests). Two samples were found negative. There are two more in Fever hospital, but they are fine and just wanted to stay isolated (from the public),” said G. Srinivasa Rao, director of Telangana’s Public Health.
The Fever hospital in Hyderabad is the main public health care centre which treats viral fevers and other diseases like Dengue fever. Last week, in the fourth such incident in Mumbai, a 36-year-old man was admitted in the isolation ward of a civic-run hospital on suspicion of possible exposure to the novel coronavirus, officials said.
The man, a resident of Tardeo in south Mumbai, was kept under observation at Kasturba Hospital in the city, they said.
Before that, three persons were admitted in the hospital for possible exposure to the virus strain, after the screening of passengers was done at the Mumbai international airport.
No case of coronavirus infection has been found in Maharashtra yet. As of January 24, some 2,700 passengers had undergone thermal screening at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport here since January 19 after an outbreak of a new coronavirus was reported in China’s Wuhan city.
The coronavirus is a large family of viruses that causes illnesses ranging from the common cold to acute respiratory syndromes, but the virus in China is a novel strain and not seen before.
Source: Livemint.