SA put on alert for deadly pneumonia virus

<a href=iol.co.za>IOL April 01 2003 at 06:19PM

South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases put the country on the alert on Tuesday for signs of the deadly pneumonia virus that has already killed more than 60 people worldwide.

The institute said that it had sent step-by-step instructions to the health department and private and state medical laboratories detailing what to do should doctors suspect Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in a patient.

"Doctors should be on the lookout for high temperatures, they should look for respiratory illness such as coughing or shortness of breath, but most importantly they should get the patient's travel and contact history," the institute's director, Professor Barry Schoub, explained.

According to the guidelines, patients suspected of having SARS must be isolated and "barrier-nursed" with mask, gown and glove precautions.

'There is an alert for the disease'Specimens such as clotted blood and nasopharyngeal swabs should be sent to the institute for analysis.

Schoub said there had been no confirmed deaths of SARS in the country.

He said the first step would be to develop a good diagnostic test for the disease, which at the moment was being subjected to the more expensive molecular testing.

"There is an alert for the disease, but it is not major. HIV/Aids is a much bigger problem in South Africa," said Schoub.

The epicentre of the disease is in Asia where the majority of the deaths have occurred. Scientists fear the disease may be spread by close human contact such as that experienced inside passenger planes.

Meanwhile, doctors at the Nelspruit Medi-Clinic said on Tuesday that a man who was admitted to the hospital on Monday night with some of the symptoms of SARS - and who had recently travelled to Mozambique and Hong Kong - did not appear to be suffering from the disease.

"The patient will be treated for malaria. The patient is stable and doing well, and will be removed from isolation to another ward," the hospital said in a statement.

The man was transported from Maputo by ambulance to the clinic on Monday night.

In parliament on Tuesday, the African Christian Democratic Party questioned South Africa's readiness to respond to a global outbreak of SARS.

"The question arises as to whether the South African government is taking sufficient preventative steps to prevent the outbreak of SARS in South Africa," said MP Steve Swart. - Sapa