Friday, Apr 25, 2003
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By Our Special Correspondent
The measures include provision of masks to all airport employees, doctors and paramedical staff who ran the risk of contracting the disease through contact with affected persons. The masks — ranging from simple three-layered ones to the high-tech respirators developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for use in case of nuclear, chemical or biological attacks — would be given according to the risk potential. While the staff at airports would be provided with the three-layered masks, costing between Rs. 3 and Rs. 5 a piece, doctors treating confirmed SARS cases would be provided with the DRDO's high-tech respirators, which cost about Rs. 2,200 each. In the intermediate categories, paramedical staff at airports would be given what are called A-71 masks which cost about Rs. 80 each while doctors stationed at airports would get the nex grade, N-95 masks costing Rs. 230 a piece. The masks would be distributed in the next few days. At a press conference, Ms. Swaraj said all passengers arriving at the country's international airports would be screened for the disease and those suspected to be carrying the virus would be confined to isolation wards and would be discharged only when blood tests and other examinations proved negative. In case the tests proved positive, the patients would be kept under observation. If they showed clinical symptoms, they would remain in isolation wards; and if they did not show clinical symptoms they would be kept in the isolation wards for two days and discharged on the condition they would remain in `home isolation' at least for 10 days. Ms. Swaraj also announced the constitution of a special Centre-State joint action group to keep track of the developments at the global and national level so that immediate mid-course correction of the strategy to fight the disease could be taken as and when necessary. The panel would be headed by the Union Health Secretary, S. K. Naik, and would include the joint secretaries in the Civil Aviation and Shipping Ministries, the directors of health services of Maharashtra, Kerala, West Bengal, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Nagaland, the Director-General of Health Services in the Union Health Ministry and the Director-General, Indian Council of Medical Research. A WHO representative would also be included to ensure. The new measures were decided upon following two high-level meetings chaired by Ms. Swaraj. The first was with representatives of various Union Ministries such as Home Affairs, Civil Aviation, Shipping and Tourism and also a representative from WHO. The second was with Health Secretaries and directors of health services of various States and Union Territories. The main idea, Ms. Swaraj said, was to ensure that SARS did not come into India and if it did it should not be allowed to spread. PTI, UNI report: Meanwhile, two suspected SARS cases had been reported from Kerala and the patients were kept under observation in hospitals, the State Health Service Director, V. K. Rajan, said in Thiruvanathapuram. The blood samples of the two, who had recently arrived from Singapore and Toronto, had been sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune, as they had come from SARS-prone countries, Dr. Rajan said. In Jaipur, a person suspected to be suffering from SARS was found to be "quite normal", but he would be discharged after he was cleared by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, a doctor attending on him said. A patient admitted to a private hospital in Bangalore with suspected SARS symptoms two days ago, was also discharged today after a blood test reported negative. In a significant development, the Bangalore-based Manipal Hospital said it had developed a kit for diagnosing SARS. "The test is similar to the one developed by Bernhard-Nocht Institut fur Tropenmedizin, a medical institute in Germany and also an allied laboratory of the World Health Organisation and meets all the specifications of WHO," a press release said. In Chandigarh, the Punjab Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh, said there was no SARS case reported so far in the State, and directed civil and health authorities to ensure requisite preventive measures to check the outbreak of the disease.
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