The 44-year-old lieutenant colonel who contracted the SARS virus had shown no improvement in his condition since he was sent to Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital (和平醫院), hospital superintendent Chu Ta-cheng (璩大成) said yesterday.
Chu said the patient, surnamed Chan, had a fever of about 38.8?C on Wednesday afternoon and chest X-rays revealed that the condition of lung infiltration had spread from the right side to the left. Hospital officials said his temperature was fluctuating throughout the day.
Chu said doctors were worried most about Chan's shortness of breath and low oxygen levels, adding that the patient has been given an oxygen inhaler. Chu declined to speculate on the probability of intubation.
Physicians found that a serum treatment was having little effect and began administering a steroid to Chan yesterday, Chu said.
"The next three days are a critical observation period," Chu said.
While the disease is still in its early stages, "I think his prognosis is good," he said.
Chu said Chan's emotions were unstable and that he appeared anxious. Chan, staying in Hoping's negative pressure ward, declined the hospital's suggestions that he talk to the public via a video communication system, citing his weak condition and privacy considerations.
Chu said Chan's brothers and sisters, supervisors and co-workers had called to him to cheer him up.
After obtaining Chan's consent, the Taipei City Government's Bureau Health made public late yesterday a picture of Chan waving his hand and wearing an inhalator.
Meanwhile, health authorities have continued SARS contact-tracing. Health officials said that the 23 people who had been in contact with Chan have not developed any symptoms so far.
The Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University (師大附中), where Chan's wife teaches chemistry, has disinfected the campus completely. Some students said they were not worried about the disease because they believed it was probably an isolated case.
But the single case has caused the nation's stock market to slump. Many travel agencies and shop owners around Hoping Hospital, the facility designated to handle SARS cases, complained that the negligence of the infected researcher had hurt their business, just recovering from the outbreak this April.
"We really hope that it is the only and the last SARS case," said a worker at a noodle shop near the hospital, adding that business has dropped since Wednesday. "We don't want to see SARS come back. It was a hard time for us."
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