This was announced by the adviser on health to the Sindh government, Noman Sehgal, at a SARS-awareness seminar organized by the SARS task force of the Sindh government on Thursday in the Civil Hospital, Karachi.
Giving a presentation, Prof Masood Hameed Khan said that a SARS ward at the hospital was a temporary arrangement aimed to treat anybody who might catch the respiratory disorder. “No case of SARS has so far been detected in Pakistan, but our country is vulnerable to the disease because of at least three factors. First, Pakistan shares a border with highly-affected China. Second, Pakistan also shares a border with possibly affected India. Thousands of people pass through airports in the country, especially the one in Karachi which seems to bear the brunt of passengers.”
Recalling the origin of the disease, he said, “In February 2003 a Chinese from South China, who was a bird handler, travelled with flu to Hong Kong. He stayed at a hotel with transit passengers for Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan and Canada. In this way, SARS spread to all these countries.”
He added that according to World Health Organization statistics, till April 30 SARS had spread to 27 countries. “It has now reported to have spread to 29 countries. It is a new corona virus which can survive the environment, inanimate surfaces (table tops, door handles, etc), human faeces. It can also survive at minus temperatures.”
Prof Khan pointed out that there was no specific treatment. “There is no vaccine for prevention. Similarly, how long can travelling be stopped? Import and export of commodities can potentially transfer the virus. Domestic animals can also harbour the virus.”
He said that since Feb 6 this year, 7,000 people had been infected with SARS. At least 500 people have died of SARS. He said: “As people travel organisms of SARS also travel. Aids was discovered in three years but SARS was identified in eight days. But SARS has spread much faster than Aids.”
Speaking about the symptoms of the respiratory disease, he said doctors should ask a patient whether he had travelled to SARS-afflicted countries within 10 days. Similarly, the patient has had some contact with SARS patients, he added.
He urged doctors to exercise extreme care and caution while dealing with SARS patients because their symptoms were those that doctors saw in patients day in, day out.
Earlier, the medical superintendent of Civil Hospital Karachi, Dr Noshad Shaikh, said that a unit with 20 beds had been set up in his hospital which would treat patients suspected of having SARS.
He added that the Sindh health department had decided to organize awareness programme for doctors, nurses, paramedics and the public about SARS so that they could discharge their duties carefully and cautiously.
Sindh chief secretary K.B. Rind, health secretary Ashique Hussain Memon, and the principal of the Dow Medical College, Illahi Buksh Soomro, also spoke on the occasion.