Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram   

Patient unlikely to have infection

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM April 25. The 72-year-old patient who has been admitted to the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College on suspicion of carrying an infection of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus, is highly unlikely to be a victim of the killer-pneumonia virus, clinical experts have said.

The city resident, who holds a Singapore citizenship, had been referred to the medical college after reporting to a private hospital with signs of viral fever within a couple of days of reaching Thiruvananthapuram by flight on April 17.

However, medical college sources said that all available clinical pointers have led them to believe that the patient was least likely to have a SARS virus infection, even though serological confirmation is awaited from the Pune-based National Institute of Virology.

Diagnostic routines such as chest X-ray and other clinical evaluation parameters indicate that it is not even a case of pneumonia. The patient, who is diabetic, has been at present diagnosed with a bronchial infection, sources said.

``The patient should normally have been sent home but for the extraordinary circumstances that warrant his being kept under observation,'' a senior doctor said.

At present, the referral of the patient as a suspected SARS case to the medical college is being pointed out as a case of some doctors over-reacting in the wake of the global alert on the killer-pneumonia.

Meanwhile, the hospital administrators are in a fix over ensuring proper isolation of the patient. Following protests by other patients over accommodating the suspected SARS case in a common isolation ward, they have shifted the patient to one of the pay wards.

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