No further cases of suspected Sars from China travellers

The 34 people who travelled to China with a Hawke's Bay woman suspected of having the killer virus Sars, have so far not shown any symptoms.

The woman was admitted to Hawke's Bay Hospital three days ago and is suspected of having the highly infectious and deadly virus severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars).

While an absolute diagnosis could be two weeks away, hospital spokeswoman Karalyn van Deursen said so far there were no fears of further patients.

Some of those who had gone on the trip had quarantined themselves.

"Because there were 35 people on the tour and the travel agent was from Hawke's Bay, our public health unit identified all the people and their addresses," she told NZPA.

Only a few of the travellers were from Hawke's Bay, but health officials in their areas had been contacted.

"As far as I understand it, some (of the travellers) have voluntarily said they would stay at home. But because there's no risk of infection until people show symptoms, they (health officials) have done a phone-around all the other public health units and all the travellers were fine.

"Everyone was clear on what the symptoms of Sars are and what to do if they get unwell."

The hospitalised woman had noticed the symptoms herself and phoned a GP. After fitting the Sars profile - high fever, dry cough and having travelled in a Sars infected area - she was admitted to hospital and placed in a negative pressure isolation room.

The room is designed to stop any infected air escaping into other parts of the hospital.

"It's masks, gowns, gloves - fairly standard, high level protection procedures," Ms van Deursen said.

The woman remained in a stable condition today. A medical team would carry out further examinations.

"It could be up to two weeks or more before a diagnosis is made. That's because the path to diagnosis is excluding other possibilities," she said.

She would not give further details on the patient, but said health officials did not believe there was a need to quarantine anyone else.

Hawke's Bay Hospital has had three other cases of suspected Sars, but all were discounted after preliminary tests.

The woman is the second New Zealander suspected of having the virus, with a 39-year-old man still in a Chinese hospital.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman Emma Reilly told NZPA earlier that the man was continuing to improve.

Local foreign affairs officials had contacted the hospital and were told the man was resting and his temperature was down.

The man, a long-time resident of Britain, was on an eight-day tour of China when he was identified as a possible Sars case at Xi'an airport.

He has been in isolation in the northwestern province since April 20. An update on his condition was not available today.

The death toll internationally from Sars stands at over 263, with more than 2100 people having recovered from the infection. Officials estimate it has claimed the lives of between 5 and 6 per cent of patients.

China, which after a hesitant start has begun to co-operate fully with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in fighting Sars, accounts for over half the 4439 cases detected by the United Nations agency around the world.

WHO has warned travellers against heading to Sars-infected Hong Kong, parts of China and Toronto in Canada - outraging Canadian officials who claim the extent and danger of the virus in their country has been exaggerated.

- NZPA