Topeka ? A northwest Kansas man is believed to be the third person in the state to contract the SARS virus, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said.

The man, whose identity was not released, developed symptoms of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, after traveling to Asia.

He has recovered and is no longer considered infectious, according to a KDHE news release.

Sharon Watson, a KDHE spokeswom-an, declined to specify the man’s home county.

“We don’t see a concern for the general public in that part of the state,” Watson said Tuesday. “We have contacted everyone who had close contact with him and the health care workers who treated him, and none of them had symptoms of SARS.”

Specimens from the man have been sent to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for analysis.

The state Health Department also is awaiting results of specimens sent to the CDC for a northeast Kansas woman who recently traveled to Asia. She was not hospitalized and apparently has recovered.

Additional tests have been done on a south-central Kansas man who had the first suspected case of SARS in Kansas. He was hospitalized but also has recovered.