Beijing: A 45-year-old Indian school teacher in the Chinese city of Shenzhen is undergoing treatment for a streptococcal infection which was initially suspected to be a case of the mysterious SARS-like coronavirus prevalent in the country.
Coronaviruses are a broad family of viruses, but only six are known to infect people. At the mild end they cause the common cold, but SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) is a coronavirus that killed nearly 650 people in China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.
Preeti Maheshwari, who teaches at an international school in Shenzhen, is being treated for streptococcal infection, her husband Ashuman Khowal told PTI from Shenzhen.
Initially it was suspected that she may have been suffering from a new type of coronavirus. Khowal, however, clarified that his wife had been diagnosed as having a streptococcal infection.
The Chinese city of Wuhan is currently in the grip of a new mysterious viral pneumonia. According to the official media reports, tentative diagnosis of the pneumonia is caused by a coronavirus.
The virus has caused alarm in China because of its connection to SARS.
India on Friday issued an advisory to its nationals visiting China following a second death due to an outbreak of the new strain of pneumonia in Wuhan.
Over 500 Indian students study in the Wuhan’s medical colleges. Most of them appear to have left for home for the Chinese New Year holidays.
The clinical signs and symptoms of coronavirus infection are mainly fever with a few patients having difficulty in breathing, the Indian travel warning said.
The mode of transmission is unclear. However, so far there is little evidence of significant human-to-human transmission, it said.
