India gears up to cope with SARS

EHM News Bureau - Mumbai

Though India reacted late to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) scare, alarmed by the rising number of deaths worldwide, the various state governments have now formed task forces in preparation for combating SARS.

The Maharashtra Government’s department of health services has commenced screening tests at the international airport and all passengers are asked to fill up a form regarding their health status. Three medicos have been stationed at the airport to screen the patients and to do the necesary referrals. Says a member of the task force on SARS, "For any suspected case, the airport authorities are supposed to quarantine the patient and send him to the hospital." The government had earmarked Kasturba and V N Desai hospital for referral of any suspected case. The hospital authorities have been asked to keep their isolation wards ready for any emergency.

However, recently, the government received flak when passengers reported that no screening tests were conducted at the airport and that the airport did not have an ambulance at its disposal. Following this, mediapersons were shown the screening facilities at the airport by Mayor of Mumbai Mahadeo Deole. According to officials of the task force, screening efforts have been intensified after April 3.

As per a government directive, the hospitals are supposed to send suspected samples to the National Institute of Virology (Pune) for tests, which has to be further confirmed by the World Health Organisation," said the official.

Said Dr S M Sapatnekar, director, Haffkine Institute for Training, Research and Testing and a member of Maharashtra task force on SARS, "It is the first time that such a disease has hit the world and the government is trying its best to cope with it. The disease is neither as simple as jaundice nor as deadly as the ebola." He added that the hospital staff must take precautions, as two-thirds of the death victims have been medical and para-medical staff. "It would be difficult to check the disease when it is in the incubation period."

The Delhi government has earmarked the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Ram Lohia hospital and Safdarjang hospital for any suspected case of SARS. The suspected samples have to be sent to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases. Says Dr Shakti Gupta, press officer, AIIMS, "The government has formed a taskforce with many representatives from AIIMS. We have asked our staff to take the necesary precautions. They are already using gloves and gowns. If the need arises, we might convert one of our cubicles into isolation wards."

The Health and Family Welfare department officials in West Bengal are concerned about the spread of common pneumonia in the districts of the state with the onset of summer. "People are being asked to get rid of sweaty clothes and dry themselves when they get home. People who have visited hospitals and pneumonia patients are instructed to wash their clothes and disinfect them. People have also been asked to drink a lot of water," officials said.

In 2001, 55 people died in Siliguri in North Bengal due to a mysterious respiratory disorder around this time of the year. "Only those who came in direct contact with a sick person was affected. This is similar to SARS. At that time, doctors in North Bengal Medical College had conducted research and brought the disease under control. Many people had also been saved," said Ashok Bhattacharya, state urban development minister who hails from North Bengal.

Ashok Bhattacharya, the state urban development minister, reposed faith in the doctors of North Bengal who, he feels, can provide a breakthrough in SARS since they managed to control the virus within 25 days in 2001 when more than 50 people died in Siliguri due to a similar mysterious respiratory disorder.

However, according to officials, “The Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s dispensaries are ill-equipped even to detect the dreaded virus. Our equipment can only facilitate sputum tests, usually done to detect tuberculosis.”