Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram   

SARS paranoia grips city residents

By C. Maya

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM April 28. A SARS paranoia seems to have gripped the city even as reports about new victims of the killer pneumonia are flooding the pages of newspapers.

Doctors point out that there is no basis for panic as so far there have been only two `suspected' cases and those two have now been diagnosed as negative.

``Only those people who have travelled outside recently need to be a little vigilant. But a lot of people have been calling up with all sorts of doubts that there is a need to set public mind at rest,'' says P.K. Sivaraman, who is heading the SARS surveillance team here.

Doctors say that climate-wise, this is the season when there is an upswing in upper respiratory tract diseases. Now what SARS has done is to scare people into wondering whether a running nose and chest congestion could be the beginnings of the killer pneumonia.

Travel agencies sources say that the SARS scare has already resulted in cancellations of vacation plans to the Far East countries and that people are scared even to take domestic flights, leave alone flights to Singapore or Hong Kong.

``After the SARS scare erupted, many business travellers cancelled their tickets to the Far East nations. The traffic to the tourist destinations there were on the increase as these are affordable tourism packages, but now people are shying away, and no wonder,'' said the employee of a prominent travel agency in the city.

According to a frequent business traveller in the city, the paranoia has reached such a level that people believe airports to be unsafe places. "There are no more flights coming in from Singapore or Hong Kong here, but people are keeping away from even friends and relatives coming from places like Bangkok where SARS has not yet been reported.''

Sreejith Kumar, branch secretary of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), says the manner in which people reacted to the presence of a `suspected' SARS victim who was admitted in the Medical College Hospital here is an indication of the fear psychosis.

``While SARS is contagious, its mortality rate is nothing when compared to infections like TB. There is no harm in taking precautions, but it is unfortunate that this disease is being projected as even more dangerous than AIDS.''

Ravindran, former head of Respiratory Medicine at the Medical College Hospital here, says most of the SARS cases being reported are only `suspected' cases and not diagnosed and confirmed cases.

``The SARS deaths being reported from various countries are mostly because people did not know about the disease or because they did not seek timely treatment,'' Dr. Ravindran points out.

The filling up of questionnaires at the airport would not achieve much in keeping a tab on possible SARS victims, according to him. This is because those who do not have any symptoms at the time of arriving at the airport, could develop it later on.

``Unless people are quarantined and observed closely for a few days, one cannot keep a check on possible cases. Many travelling to the U.S. have been requesting that they be given `no SARS' certificate. But it makes no sense because such confirmation can be given only after detailed virological tests, for which we do not have facilities,'' says Dr. Ravindran.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• SARS paranoia grips city residents
• SARS: more security masks arriving
• Suspected cases test negative
• Kadavoor in hospital
• Progress of work on culverts to be reviewed today
• Major power disruption
• AI operates Jumbo flight
• Corporation to go ahead with water supply scheme

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu