New Delhi, April 3
The government today decided to screen passengers from all the countries at airports for the symptoms related to unknown pneumonia rather than limiting it to those from where the virus has been reported, officials said today.
This was being done in view of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) now being reported from more countries — 18 in all, Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Bhavani Thyagrajan told a group of reporters here.
Meanwhile, allaying fears about the possible spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in India, the Delhi Medical Association (DMA) has said that although there is no cause for panic, the public needs to be cautious.
Sources in the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) in North Delhi told TNS on Thursday that no sample of any suspected case of SARS had been sent to its 24-hour control room as yet.
Dr Sunil Gupta, senior microbiologist at NICD, told TNS that no case had been reported in India so far and the institute was fully geared to meet the situation. "We have set up a control room. All international airports have been alerted to ensure that air passengers carrying the SARS virus are isolated.
The All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ram Manohar Lohia and Safdarjung Hospital have been identified for handling reported cases of SARS.
The suspected carriers of SARS would be isolated to prevent the spread of the infection. The hospital authorities have been instructed to collect clinical samples as blood and serum and send them to NICD for testing.'' Sources in the Health Ministry confirm that immigration officials have been trained to identify suspected carriers of the unknown virus which causes SARS.
They have been instructed to examine passengers arriving from 18 countries, including Belgium, Canada, China, France,
Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Meanwhile, the DMA has also decided to set up a control room which would function from 11 am to 6 pm to enable persons seek help from general physicians and specialists.
The DMA president, Dr Anil Bansal, told TNS that the decision to set up the control room and the helpline was taken at a meeting here on Thursday. The control room number is 23271726. The DMA has identified doctors who would be available for free counselling over the telephone. The NICD control room numbers are 23928700 and 23943601.
