(Image source from: indiatoday.in)

A 45-year-old Indian school teacher becomes the first foreigner to have contracted the mysterious SARS- like coronavirus as she is undergoing treatment for a new strain of pneumonia outbreak that is being spread in the cities of China, Wuhan and Shezhen.

Wuhan was the city where the virus has started surfacing few weeks ago and the total number of cases that were recorded were 62 which included addition of 17 new cases that were reported.

Preeti Maheshwari who is a teacher at an international school in Shenzhen has fallen seriously ill and was taken to a hospital where she was admitted last Friday. It has been confirmed that she has been suffering from the virus and the treatment regarding the same has been started.

The virus is said to be connected to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). There have been nearly 650 deaths recorded in 2002-2003 in China and Hong Kong due to SARS.

A businessman from Delhi, named Khowal is allowed to visit the patient every day and has said that Maheshwari was being treated in the intensive care unit and is on the ventilator and other support systems currently. He has also said that Maheshwari was unconscious and that the doctors said that the recovery time of Maheshwari will be long.

Out of the 62 cases that were reported, 19 have been cured and were discharged from the hospital where as the rest are receiving treatment says a report by the state- run Xinhua news agency, on Sunday.

An advisory has also been raised by India to its nationals who are visiting China after the death that has caused due to the out break of the virus in Wuhan which is a city in China as it is the city were over 500 Indian medical students are studying. It is said that most of the Indian medical students have left the city Wuhan for the Chinese New Year holidays.

A travel warning has been issued by India which said that China has reported with an infection that is caused by a novel coronavirus and that 41 cases have been confirmed by January 11, 2020 and have been reported.

The India travel has also warned as they mentioned the symptoms and signs of the virus being infected, as fever being the main symptom and few patients suffering with difficulty in breathing. It also said that, though the mode of transmission is not yet confirmed, there persists a little evidence of significant human- to- human transmission.

The Municipal Health Commission of Wuhan has said that the symptoms surrounding the disease as fever or cough.

The authorities has said that the epidemiological investigations are being done to the 17 new cases and the close contacts are being traced. It has also said that the search area in Wuhan will continue to expand and the suspected cases will be identified and sample tests will be conducted.

It is said that no cases among the close contacts were found and that 681 have been released among the 763 close contacts who were undergoing medical observation.

By Shrithika Kushangi