The Hindu : Not a SARS case: experts

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Sunday, Apr 06, 2003

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Not a SARS case: experts

By Our Special Correspondent

Members of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, New Delhi, going to examine Purshottam Jadon, a suspected SARS patient, at Chirayu Hospital in Bhopal on Saturday. — Photo: A. M. Faruqui

NEW DELHI April 5. Apprehensions that an epidemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the killer pneumonia-like infection, could have broken out in India too has turned out to be a case of false alarm.

A two-member team of experts from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, which rushed to Bhopal on Friday — to investigate a suspected case of SARS there — has concluded that it had nothing to do with the deadly infection.

According to their report to the Union Health Ministry, though the suspected case (an 18-year-old boy) did meet two of the conditions under the case definition for SARS, he did not meet the third, equally important, condition.

As per the case definition, a person would be considered as suffering from the infection if he or she meets the following three conditions: Has a sudden onset of high fever (more than 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit); has cough, shortness of breath or difficulty in breathing and either has a history of visit to a SARS-affected country within 10 days of the onset of the two physical symptoms or a history of contact with a person who had been diagnosed with SARS.

The boy has met the first two conditions but there was lack of clarity over the third condition. While it was clear that he had not travelled to any SARS-affected country, it was not initially clear whether he had come into contact with a person affected by the disease. Doubts had arisen since there were reports that nine persons had died of pneumonia in the neighbourhood of where the boy lived over the past two to three months.

Briefing reporters on the findings of the experts, senior Union Health Ministry officials said that after a detailed perusal of the records, the NICD experts found that there was absolutely no linkage either between the boy and the nine previous cases, or, for that matter, amongst them.

The experts have emphasised that the cases were found to have come from different districts and, therefore, there was absolutely no possibility for it to be a case of SARS.

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