mumbai

Updated: Jan 25, 2020 00:22 IST

A 61-year-old Nalasopara resident, who recently returned from Hong Kong and developed cold-like symptoms, similar to those caused by the new coronavirus, 2019-nCoV, was on Friday afternoon quarantined at the isolation facility at the municipal Kasturba Gandhi Hospital in Chinchpokli, bringing the total number of quarantined people in the city to three.

The samples of two of them that were sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune have tested negative for the coronavirus. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), however, will keep them in the hospital until they consult with epidemiologists.

The 61-year-old man landed in Mumbai on January 9. Public health officials have been checking on him over the phone since then. On Thursday, two people, who recently returned from China and developed flu-like symptoms, were admitted to the hospital as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus that has killed at least 26 people in China, most of them in Wuhan in Hebei province.

“One sample has been found negative, while the other one sample was found positive for Rhinovirus which is a form of viral infection. We are yet to decide if we will discharge them. We have to consult with experts as this virus has an incubation period of 12 days. So, after further examination and investigation, we will take a call on it,” said Dr Padmaja Keskar, executive health officer, BMC.

The health ministry tweeted: “ICMR-NIV Pune has informed that 4 samples (2 from Mumbai, 1 each from B’luru & Hy’bad) have tested NEGATIVE for nCoV. One of Mumbai patients has tested positive for Rhinovirus, one of the routine common cold virus.”

One of the two admitted on Thursday is a 31-year-old marketing professional from Nalasopara, who had complained of body ache and cold two days after returning to Mumbai from Foshan, China on January 21. Although she did not have any symptoms when she landed, she was in touch with public health officials on the telephone. On January 23, when she developed symptoms, she was moved to the Kasturba Gandhi Hospital, where the BMC has a 10-beded isolation ward. This ward was used during the Ebola virus outbreak. The Kasturba Gandhi Hospital is planning to increase the number of beds in the isolation ward by five, as they are expecting more patients.

Public health officials said the other patient at the facility was a 36-year-old man from Kalyan, an information technology professional, who had travelled to Guangzhou in China on January 16, when he already had cold and fever. He had been in contact with Indian public health officials over the phone. After taking medicines, his condition improved, but on January 22, when he landed in Mumbai, his body temperature was still high, so he was quarantined as a precaution.

As part of the isolation regime, the hospital has prohibited family members from visiting. A relative of the 31-year-old marketing professional said, “Within one day of returning from China, she ran a temperature and complained of tiredness. She took over-the-counter medicines, which helped control the fever, but she still had cold. Health officials counselled us on the need to quarantine, so we agreed.”

Coronavirus symptoms are similar to cold – fever, cough and breathlessness. For those with a weakened immune system, the elderly and the very young, there’s a chance the virus could cause a lower, and more serious respiratory tract illness such as pneumonia or bronchitis. There are currently no vaccines against the infection or treatment for illnesses caused by it. Three other residents of Maharashtra, who returned from Wuhan recently, have been kept under observation.

“All of them are from Pune. They don’t have any symptoms, but we are doing telephonic follow-ups,” said Dr Archana Patil, additional director of health services, State Family Welfare Bureau. “No one has been admitted or quarantined in Pune.”

Doctors have advised people not to panic and consult doctors immediately if they have visited China or came in contact with anyone who had recently been to the country. “There is no need to panic, but we recommend a healthy diet, wearing masks in crowded places and seeing a clinician if you have any of these symptoms,” said Rahul Tambe, senior consultant, internal medicine, Nanavati Super Speciality Hospital.