LAHORE, April 8: The Punjab Directorate General of Health Services has taken pre-emptive measures and prepared instructions for air travellers and crew to check the incidence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in the country.

Punjab DGHS Dr Sabiha Khursheed has also deputed the director health services for communicable disease control, Dr Faiz Ali Khan Jaskani, focal person for the SARS.

Dr Jaskani has been directed to coordinate with the airport authorities to depute doctors for screening passengers — national or foreigners — coming from the SARS high-risk countries.

Dr Sabiha has ordered that the addresses of the suspected patients should be kept by the airport health authorities under intimation to the directorate, and refer the patient to Dr Kamran Cheema, pulmonologist at the Services Hospital, for treatment. The PGMI/Services Hospital principal executive officer has been requested to establish a referral clinic at the hospital.

The DGHS office has also put on alert its medical and health institutions, special institutions and field formation to check the incidence of the SARS.

Meanwhile, the federal government’s health directorate has posted doctors at the Lahore airport to check the in-coming travellers from the SARS high-risk countries.

When contacted, Lahore airport manager Nusratullah Khan said doctors were already available for different flights, including the Thai Airways, to check passengers. He said the health directorate doctors were also examining all the passengers coming from the SARS high-risk countries.

SARS, a mysterious respiratory virus which was first detected on Feb 26 in Hanoi, Vietnam, has so far infected around 2,482 people and killed at least 100 in 29 countries in Asia, Europe, Middle East and North, Central and South America.

It is an aerosol and/or droplet infection of respiratory tract and body fluids due to unknown causative agents that cause mumps, measles and ordinary respiratory problems. Initially, it shows flu-like symptoms, which are followed by high fever, muscle ache, headache, sore throat, loss of appetite, malaise, confusion, rashes and diarrhoea. In some cases, there may be bilateral pneumonia, progressing to acute respiratory distress requiring assisted breathing on respirator.

The SARS cases have so far been reported from Vietnam, Hong Kong (special administrative region of China), Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Belgium, Britain, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Israel, Canada, USA, Mexico, Panama, Brazil and India.

The guidelines prepared by the DGHS for air travellers and crew says that the travellers should be made aware of the main symptoms of the SARS. If symptoms are detected in any passenger, he/she should be advised not to continue further travel.

If any traveller or crew member has SARS symptoms, the guidelines suggested that the aircraft crew should alert the destination airport about the passenger or crew members having symptoms.

The DG said the passengers and crew should provide all contact details for the subsequent 14 days to the airport health authorities.

Saying that currently there were no indications to restrict the travel of healthy passengers, the DG pointed out that all the passengers and crew should seek medical advice if they developed symptoms.

The guidelines also say that there is no indication to provide passengers and crew with any medication unless they become ill. Specific measures cannot be recommended because (specific) information regarding nature of the organism causing illness are not known. However, as a general precaution, the aircraft may be disinfected according to the WHO guide to hygiene and sanitation.

It is also recommended that the airport authorities should depute capable doctors on international points of entry.

The guidelines suggested that any passenger, national or foreigner, coming from the SARS high-risk countries should answer a few simple questions by the medical officer, if suspected of the disease.