Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram   

Suspected cases test negative

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM APRIL 28. Infection with the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus has been ruled out in the confirmatory tests conducted by the National Institute of Virology, Pune, on serological samples of the two suspected cases in Kerala.

The serological samples of the two patients had been collected at the Public Health Laboratory in Thiruvananthapuram and despatched to the NIV for conducting confirmatory Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests.

Though the results were intimated over telephone on Monday evening, the result values were subsequently sent by fax at the behest of the health authorities here.

The two patients had been kept under observation at isolation wards at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College and the General Hospital, Kochi, since they reported for treatment with fever and respiratory symptoms.

A 72-year-old patient, holding a Singapore citizenship, had been referred to the Medical College after he turned up with symptoms of viral fever at a private hospital. The patient had reached Thiruvananthapuram airport on April 17.

The other patient was being kept under surveillance at the Ernakulam General Hospital after reporting with fever and cough almost a month after returning to the State from Toronto, Canada, on March 13.

Earlier, clinicians at the Medical College had dismissed as highly unlikely the possibility of the patient having been infected with the killer-pneumonia virus. According to MCH doctors, routine diagnostic procedures such as chest x-rays and other evaluation parameters had ruled out a case of pneumonia.

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