Durban man quarantined in killer virus scare

<a href=iol.co.za>IOL SudAfrica April 01 2003 at 06:16AM By Patrick Leeman

A Durban man is in the isolation ward of Umhlanga Hospital with symptoms similar to those exhibited by people with the highly infectious Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

However, the regional general manager of Netcare, the group which owns and administers the hospital, said on Monday the attending specialist did not believe the patient was suffering from SARS.

The manager, Ian Goble, said the patient was responding well to conventional treatment.

It is understood that the man recently returned to Durban after a visit to the Far East, including Hong Kong, the epicentre of the outbreak of the virus.

A spokesperson for the eThekwini municipality's health department said on Monday that the department had asked for a blood sample from the patient in Umhlanga Hospital and would send it to the National Institute of Virology in Johannesburg for testing.

He said city health authorities were required to do this by law.

More than 1 323 cases of SARS have been reported from 13 countries on three continents since first appearing in Asia at the beginning of February.

There have been 49 deaths.

• This article was originally published on page 1 of The Mercury on 01 April 2003