KARACHI, April 22: The authorities are not doing enough to stop the virus that causes the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome from entering Pakistan, visits to Karachi airport and interviews with several travellers show.

It is not that a well-formulated system to screen and monitor the persons travelling from SARS-affected countries is not in place. Such a process is in place, but there’s considerable room for improvement in the way the same is being run by the Civil Aviation Authority and the Airport Health Department.

A professor of medicine — who reached Jinnah International airport from Hong Kong on board the Cathay Pacific flight No 701 on Monday night — told Dawn that the officials entrusted with the task of identifying persons suspected of having SARS virus were not strict enough.

“What they are doing is the routine, usual stuff. They are not strict enough, I think,” said Yoshiki Yamano of the Osaka City University. He said there was no doctor inside the terminal when people coming from Hong Kong arrived at the “International Arrivals” lounge of Jinnah International.

Habib Zahid — a Pakistani living in Hong Kong for the last many years — was of the opinion that what the airport staff were doing was simply useless. “If the government does not improve the system soon, there will be a disaster on our hands.

“Just look at what has happened in Hong Kong, which is a fairly modern place compared to Pakistan,” he said. The authorities depended too much on the travellers’ sense of honesty and fair play.

“They distribute declaration forms which they hope and pray will be filled out honestly by each and every traveller. Then they take decisions on the basis of these filled out forms.

“What they fail to realize is that travellers, for any reason, may lie. And they do lie I tell.”

The tall well-built man said the same problem was encountered by the Hong Kong authorities. “What they had to do in Hong Kong was to start monitoring the temperature of every person travelling from the SARS-affected areas. This is how they hope to get a grip on the virus.”

To a question, he said there was a doctor inside the “Arrivals” lounge, who was supposed to keep his eye open for people who could be carrying the Corona-type virus that can cause SARS, but who seemed inattentive and unfocussed.

A tall white man — who refused to give his name — showed Dawn two filled out declaration forms. “Look, they gave me these forms. But there was no one to collect them when I was coming out. You can make out yourself what kind of a system you have at this airport.”

Dr Liepach, an academic, and Mr Brommelhorster said it was really difficult for the staff to separate sick people from healthy ones. They said each passenger had been provided masks by the aircraft staff.

“But an interesting observation is that when the travellers take their food the masks are removed, defeating the whole idea of providing masks in the first place,” said Brommelhorster.

James Yang, a native of Hong Kong, seemed satisfied with the system in place. “I think it’s okay. There’s no doctor but there are people who are asking all the relevant questions like where do you live, where are you coming from and have you had any disease recently or not?”

When asked about the efforts to prevent the SARS virus from entering Pakistani territory on Tuesday afternoon, some senior officials of the CAA and Airport Health Department expressed confidence in their system. Their message: the authorities are on top of the situation. Besides, authorities in Hong Kong, mainland China, Singapore and Canada are stopping people with flu-like symptoms from boarding aircraft.

S. Yusuf Abbas, the deputy director of Jinnah International, said the CAA director general had taken personal interest in the issue. “He has instructed all the airports under our control, including Lahore, to monitor all the people on board the aircraft coming from China, Hong Kong, etc.”

He said health department officials were assisting the CAA in identifying and screening the people who could be carrying the SARS virus. “The people making up our line of defence are the people called duty health officers.”

Later, this reporter was taken to the duty health officer’s office, who said SARS was not the only disease which had to be stopped from entering the country. “Some people think, wrongly of course, that SARS is the only such disease,” said Dr Anwarul Haq.

Elaborating, he said India some years ago had a severe outbreak of bubonic plague. “Back then too we had a scare. But let me remind you that due to our efforts not a single case was reported in Pakistan.”

Dr Anwar said he and his colleagues were yet to come across a person who could be suspected of having SARS. He claimed that whenever an aircraft coming from any of the SARS-affected countries landed, the first Pakistani people to board it were the staff of the Airport Health Department.

“We are the first people who do so because we want to make sure that the aircraft’s doors are opened only when everything is fine.”

Dr Anwar admitted that he and his colleagues did not take temperatures of the travellers. “Look, this is not possible. We have been instructed by our superiors that we do our job without offending and bothering people.”

He said he and his colleagues were supposed to keep an eye out for people with fever, cough and shortness of breath. “We don’t have to take temperatures all the time. We are trained enough to determine whether someone has the symptoms or not just by looking at him or her.”

Answering a question, Dr Anwar said all the people who disembarked in Karachi were monitored. “But we take special care when it comes to people coming from Hong Kong, China, Singapore, etc.”

Dr Anwar said a 50-bed facility, situated on the far side of the runway, had been designated as a quarantine for SARS cases. “This health centre is used routinely for cases involving Yellow Fever and Congo Virus. Now, this same facility will be used for SARS cases too.”

The manager of the “Arrivals” part of Karachi airport — Naeem Rashid — said all the airlines with flights which landed at Karachi airport had been instructed to alert their ground crew in case there was an affected person on board.

He claimed that the CAA and the Airport Health Department were quite strict when it came to SARS.

“Recently, one of the airlines objected to some of our steps, especially our doctors’ visits to the aircraft. But the Airport Director said nothing doing. Our doctors will do what they must, come what may. Later, the airlines people had to back off.”