On SARS route, US woman lands in Mumbai, first suspected case

According to Deputy Director of Health Services Subash Salunkhe, Raleigh left Chicago on January 14. She travelled through China, Taipei, Thailand (Bangkok, Chiang Mai), Vietnam (Hanoi) and Cambodia.

On April 2, she landed in Delhi with a friend who had developed fever. (Raleigh said she was not in touch with the person anymore; authorities are trying to track this freind through her e-mail address.) On April 3, Raleigh landed in Mumbai on an Indian Airlines flight and checked into a hotel in Girgaum Chowpatty.

She developed fever, redness of eyes and cold on April 6. Raliegh went to the Jaslok Hospital today from where she was referred to Kasturba hospital, earmarked for SARS treatment. The hospital is located in the heart of the city, Byculla, near the high-security Arthur Road Jail. Raleigh, who is also an asthmatic, has been isolated in a special ward on the second floor of the hospital. At Jaslok hospital, doctors said that her chest x-ray was clear. Access to the ward has been severly restricted.

A team of experts lead by Dr Bichele of KEM Hospital, including executive health officer Dr R M Kathuria, examined her for four-five hours. Additional Municipal Commissioner Sitaram Kunte said: ‘‘We are doing the needful and taking the necessary precautions.’’ He was referring to protective gear worn by those entering the ward. A team of the National Institute of Virology, Pune, was expected late in the night.

Municipal Commissioner Karun Shrivastava had a sketchy outline of Raleigh’s movement in the city after she landed: She went out on Friday and Saturday. At the hotel where she was staying, staffers said that Raleigh had checked out today for a ‘‘medical check-up’’. ‘‘She was alone. She’d be out all day and return in the evenings. She didn’t appear sick,’’ a staffer said. The health department is scrambling to figure out all the places Raleigh had been to. They are also looking for her contact friend in Mumbai who apparently referred her to Jaslok. They are also trying to contact her friend who she left behind in Delhi.