'SARS' kids set to leave hospital

news.com.au April 07, 2003

FOUR children suspected of carrying the SARS virus are expected to be released from a Melbourne isolation ward and allowed home by the end of the day.

Doctors have said the three siblings and a Vietnamese child are all likely to get the all-clear today.

The Hogarth family - four-year-old Isabelle, Thomas, six, 18-month-old Jack and their parents David and Deb - have been in isolation since Thursday after the children developed symptoms of the deadly SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) virus.

The family, on holidays from Toronto, Canada, arrived in Melbourne on March 30 to visit parents and grandparents.

Professor Richard Doherty, the head of infectious diseases at Monash Medical Centre, said the three children appeared to be getting better.