- SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters)
- Brazilian health authorities on Wednesday reported the country's first
suspected case of a deadly flu-like virus that has killed nearly 80 people
around the world.
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- Sao Paulo State Health Secretary Luiz Roberto Barradas
said a British journalist who arrived in Sao Paulo on Monday to cover a
Formula One auto race had come down with symptoms indicative of the Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, that has spread throughout Asia, Europe
and North America.
-
- If confirmed, the case would be the first in Latin America
after a suspected infection in Argentina last month turned out to be a
false alarm.
-
- The 42-year-old woman, whose name was withheld, had previously
been in Malaysia to cover an auto race and had passed through Singapore
and London before coming to Brazil, Barradas said.
-
- "The patient has been isolated and for the moment
we do not have any news of any other cases or patients," Barradas
told reporters after a news conference. "At the moment there is no
risk for anyone to become infected with this disease."
-
- Some 78 people have died and more than 2,300 have been
infected as a result of the virus, which can cause fever, dry cough, shortness
of breath or breathing difficulties. The mortality rate appears to be between
3 percent to 5 percent, and so far the deaths have been concentrated in
China, where SARS originated late last year.
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