21 doctors, nurses infected with pneumonia in E China

HEFEI - Twenty-one doctors and nurses in East China's Anhui province have been hospitalized after being diagnosed with viral pneumonia, local health authorities said Friday.

The medical workers have been quarantined for treatment and none of their infections are critical, according to a statement from the municipal health bureau of the city of Suzhou.

All of the infected work in the department of respiratory care at the General Hospital of the Wanbei Coal-Electricity Group.

One nurse began to show symptoms of fever, headache and coughing on the night of June 5, with the rest exhibiting symptoms soon afterward, the bureau said.

Twenty-one of the department's employees had been diagnosed and hospitalized as of Tuesday, the bureau said, adding that no new cases have been reported since then.

The bureau said tests for viral pneumonia have not yet been completed, although two respiratory experts from another hospital diagnosed them with viral pneumonia.

The Suzhou Disease Prevention and Control Center has taken samples from some the patients.

Feng Lizhong, a publicity official from the provincial health department, said the case represents an ordinary pneumonic infection and is not a public health issue.