The man with a "probable" case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Mayo is "doing well" in hospital, while a suspected case has been confirmed in the midlands.
The National Disease Surveillance Centre (NDSC) was unable to make any comment on either case yesterday. It said this was due to the public health doctors' work-to-rule.
However, a spokeswoman for the Western Health Board said it was monitoring the condition of the middle-aged man who referred himself into Mayo General Hospital, Castlebar, while a man in his 40s has been described as "stable" after he checked into the Midland Regional Hospital, in Portlaoise, Co Laois, on Saturday.
Both men had recently returned from south-east Asia, and the Mayo patient was staying in the hotel which has been linked to cases of the virus in the Kowloon Peninsula, Hong Kong. It is understood the man was visiting relatives, and was only two floors away from a confirmed case of the virus in the Metropole Hotel.
Samples from both patients have been sent to the virus reference laboratory in Dublin, but these may have to be referred on if there is a difficulty in identifying the strain of pneumonia. It is responsible for 15 deaths worldwide, and there are over 300 cases reported in 11 countries as of the end of this week.
The virus has no known cause and does not respond to standard drugs. It has been found in people who visited affected areas in south-east Asia, or who had close contact with others who picked up the infection.
Public health doctors are the only medical staff qualified to deal with situations like SARS in a wider public health context. However, they have been involved in a dispute over lack of an emergency plan for out-of-hours cover since 1994, and voted last week to serve strike notice in a fortnight's time.
