The Hindu : SARS scare grips Britain

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 22, 2003

International

International

SARS scare grips Britain

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON APRIL 21. The SARS scare has taken what many believe a bizarre turn in Britain with hundreds of schoolchildren returning from their Easter holidays in South East Asia — mainly Hong Kong and Singapore — facing forced `isolation' before they are allowed to resume their classes. At the weekend, about 150 children from some of the country's most snobbish boarding schools such as Eton were whisked away straight from Heathrow airport and put into quarantine in a remote Victorian mansion in Isle of Wight where they would spend ten days before they can attend their schools.

The children were reported to be `traumatised' and `baffled' at being treated as `outcasts' and a spokesman for the Association of Guardianship Services, which was looking after them, said they were "very confused and upset." Many were forced to cut short their holidays in order to meet the quarantine requirements.

The move, widely criticised as a panic reaction, came even as the Government's health department insisted that quarantine was not necessary.

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