Moscow, May 28: A 25-year-old man in Russia's far east has been officially diagnosed with SARS, the first case of the virus to be confirmed in Russia, the country's top medical official said today. The Russian health ministry diagnosed the man in Blagoveshchensk, near the border with china, as positive for SARS, ending weeks of speculation into whether he had been infected with the highly contagious virus, Gennady Onishchenko said.
"The official diagnosis is atypical pneumonia," Onishchenko said, quoted by the Interfax news agency.
Earlier blood tests on Denis Soynikov had come back inconclusive, with two testing positive and three negative for severe acute respiratory synrome (SARS).
New blood tests and the evolution of the patient's health status prompted the diagnosis, said Onishchenko, who had long said he suspected Soynikov of having the atypical pneumonia.
Onishchenko said the patient was already "getting better."
Soynikov was hospitalised on May 1 after living for almost a year in a residence hotel frequented by Chinese market vendors.
The diagnosis meant that this was the first of Russia's 25 suspected SARS cases to be confirmed.
Russia has implemented a series of drastic measures in a bid to fend off SARS, closing down most of its border crossings with China and Mongolia and almost entirely shutting down air travel to China.
Bureau Report