KARACHI: 94pc patients recover without treatment: No SARS case in Pakistan
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, April 29: About 94 per cent of the people carrying the virus which causes the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome recover from it on their own. No treatment is available for it yet.
So said some members of the Infectious Diseases Society of Pakistan and Pakistan Medical Association at a press conference held at the PMA House on Tuesday. They said the fatality rate was between 4 and 5.5 per cent.
The persons who spoke on the occasion were Dr Altaf Ahmed, Dr Naseem Salahuddin, Dr Habib-ur-Rehman Soomro, Dr Afia Zafar and Dr Aziz Khan Tank. Mohammad Zakariya represented the authorities.
“Initially the WHO had said that the fatality rate was about 4 per cent. Then they revised the figure and said the rate was 5.5 per cent,” said one of the speakers.
The panelists told journalists that even during the incubation period the symptoms of SARS could be made out. And the symptoms were fever, runny nose, cough and shortness of breath.
The persons suspected of suffering from SARS should be quarantined for at least 10 days, they stated. This was the only way in which the deadly syndrome could be controlled.
Answering a question, the members of IDSP and PMA told newsmen that tests were not available in the country with the help of which it could be determined conclusively that a person was suffering from SARS. “So, we will have to depend on clinical diagnosis only.”
When asked if all the ports of entry including seaports and land routes had been secured against SARS, Mohammad Zakariya claimed that all the measures needed had been taken. “The federal health minister himself has taken a keen interest in this area,” he said.
Mr Zakariya said the Silk Route which linked Pakistan with the SARS-hit country of China had not been opened yet. “This route will open on the first of May. But we will take all precautionary steps before we open the route for commuters and truckers.”
He said the Airport Health Department of the Jinnah International ran a 50-bed quarantine situated near the runway. This facility was being used to isolate the persons with Yellow Fever too.
In response to a question, the doctors told journalists that, given the lack of hygienic conditions in the country, theoretically it was possible for a new disease to break out. And if such a thing happened in Pakistan the health-care system would not be able to cope, they said.
The panelists said it was tragic that more than 50 years on from independence the authorities were yet to establish a quarantine in the biggest city of the country. They were, however, unanimous in cautioning against creating a hype or scare over SARS.
CHK: The Civil Hospital Karachi is establishing a quarantine for people suspected of having SARS.
The quarantine is going to be housed in the newly-built structure of the medical ward number three.
According to the hospital’s MS, Prof Noshad Sheikh, medicine had already been acquired for 200 individuals. However, he added that SARS was being given too much importance, especially when not a single case had been detected in the country so far.
CLARIFICATION: The administration of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre does not want to evict the patients of its skin ward in order to create a SARS quarantine, said a notification issued on Monday.
Clarifying a news item which was published in Dawn, the brief notification said: “JPMC administration has decided to establish an isolated area for SARS-suspected patients in response to the order by the ministry of Health.
“The JPMC administration does not want to displace the patients of the skin ward unless arrangement of suitable place is made.”
