Kolkata: The first case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Kolkata was detected on April 26 after the blood sample of a heart patient, who had recently visited China, tested positive for the mysterious virus.

Asitava Purakayastha, a textile machinery expert, was taken to the Beliaghata infectious disease hospital from another hospital in the city where he was undergoing treatment for some heart ailment since April 20, when it became known that he had been to China recently and was suffering from high fever and cough.

His blood sample sent to a national laboratory in Pune tested positive for the SARS virus, P Chatterjee, director, West Bengal health services, said, adding that Purakayastha was under treatment at an isolated ward of the Apollo hospital in the city.

An urgent meeting of senior officials of the health department has been convened on April 27 to take stock of the situation in the wake of the detection of the first SARS case in Kolkata, Chatterjee said.

PTI