The Hindu : 7 more samples received for testing for SARS

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 26, 2003

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7 more samples received for testing for SARS

New Delhi April 25. Air India has decided not to send samples from its two pilots for testing for the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus as they do not fit into the suspected case category even as seven more samples were received for testing by the country's laboratories, health officials said today.

A Chinese woman, who had been undergoing treatment at Infectious Diseases Hospital here, was being discharged with home quarantine instructions as her samples had tested negative for the SARS virus. The Director General of Health Services, S.P. Agarwal, told reporters here that besides confirmed cases there was no suspected case of SARS in India, but seven more samples had been received by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases and the National Institute of Virology (NIV).

Four samples were received from Bhatinda, of which two patients were undergoing treatment at Civil Hospital there, and three were received from Kerala, he said.

However, the Bhatinda cases did not fit into the suspected SARS category.

One patient belonging to Thiruvananthapuram had come to India on April 17 from Singapore and had difficulty in breathing. He did not have any fever, he said.

Dr. Agarwal said samples of a patient from Gurgaon had been sent back as the case did not fit into SARS-suspected case definition while samples of a patient who was admitted to the Civil Hospital, Nashik, had tested negative for SARS. The patient, who had come to India from the U.S. on April 18, was discharged on April 24.

Meanwhile, three SARS patients were undergoing treatment at Naidu Hospital, Pune. Their chest X-rays were normal and they did not have any fever.

A report from Pune said they were recovering and likely to be discharged within the next five days.Before being discharged, the patients would be tested to ensure that they have fully recovered, the Health Officer of Pune Municipal Corporation, Anil Rawthekar, said.

Dr. Agarwal said that 25 people, who were quarantined in Pune as they had come in contact with three SARS cases during wedding of one of them there had not developed any symptoms.

A team from the NIV has left for Mumbai to collect the samples from the taxi driver and his associate who drove the SARS-affected family from Ambernath to Pune.

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Health Minister Digvijay Khanvilkar today assured in Kolhapur that there was no need for the public to panic about SARS and that the Government had urged the Centre to provide additional healthcare professionals for check ups at the airports.

Scare in school

Reports that several children of a residential school in Barabanki district in Uttar Pradesh had been infected with pneumonia virus prompted district authorities to rush a team there to confirm the presence of SARS.

However, the district medical authorities, have ruled out the presence of the virus.

The Delhi Government may declare SARS a notifiable disease in a few days, official sources said today. — PTI

No case in Gujarat

Our Special Correspondent reports from Gandhinagar:

The first SARS scare in Gujarat turned out to be a hoax with the authorities denying that any case had been recorded in the State.

The scare spread with the report of a pregnant woman, Vandana Karia, having carried the SARS virus from Sharjah from where she came here on April 22. She had undergone the routine check-up at the airport on arrival and was allowed to go to her native place, Mahuva in Bhavnagar district.

But on reaching Mahuva she complained of a respiratory problem which gave rise to the fear.

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