China's first confirmed SARS patient this year was discharged
from the hospital in east China's Anhui Province Monday
morning.
The patient, a medical postgraduate surnamed Song, shook hands with
leaders of the Anhui University of Medical Science where she
studies, and waved to the waiting crowd after walking out of the
ward.
Zhu Qixing, president of the hospital attached to the medical
university, said Song has met all the requirements for being
discharged.
Before leaving the isolation ward, she changed all her clothes
and underwent thorough disinfection.
Song worked at the Beijing-based Institute of Virology under the
Chinese Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) from March
7 to 22. When returned to Hefei, the capital of Anhui, by train on
March 23 she felt ill and had a fever. She was diagnosed with SARS
on April 23.
She was treated in the hospital with combined Western and
traditional Chinese therapies.
Zhang Xuejun, president of the Anhui University of Medical
Science, said that Song already has the SARS antibody and all live
SARS virus in her body has been neutralized, which means she is no
longer contagious.
According to the local health department, all 154 people who had
close contact with Song have undergone medical observation. None
have shown abnormal symptoms.
(Xinhua News Agency May 10, 2004)
