Russia confirms first SARS case
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Suspect case: A person who develops high fever (greater than 38 C / 100.4 F) and respiratory symptoms such as cough, breathing difficulty or shortness of breath, within 10 days of
1) having had close contact with a person who is a suspect or probable case of SARS.
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2) having traveled to or resided in an affected area.
Probable case: A suspect case with chest X-ray findings of pneumonia or respiratory distress syndrome. |
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MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russia has confirmed that a 25-year-old man, who lives in a town bordering China, has become the country's first case of SARS.
The Ministry of Health definitively diagnosed the patient from Blagoveschensk, a town of 170,000 and the capital of Russia's Amur region, Wednesday. He is having more tests.
The victim, identified as Denis Soinikov, is a municipal worker who lived in a riverfront hotel frequented by many Chinese nationals.
The river serves as the border between Russian and China, where the largest number of cases of SARS -- or severe acute respiratory syndrome -- have been reported.
Now Russia is to close several border points with China, effective June 4.
Gennady Onishchenko, Russia's chief public health physician, said the victim was the same person he told the Russian parliament about earlier this month.
"The diagnosis is unquestionably atypical pneumonia," the term used by Russians for SARS, according to Interfax, the Russian news agency.
Onishchenko cited a blood test for the diagnosis, Interfax reported.
