SARS
victim discharged
Sandesh Prabhudesai
18 April 2003
India's first SARS victim has finally been discharged from
the Goa Medical College hospital today at 5.15 pm.
"He is no more a carrier or a spreader of SARS",
declared chief minister Manohar Parrikar.
He confirmed that the union health ministry approved the
decision in this regard, taken at local level along with the
experts of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases.
He has however been told to remain in voluntary isolation,
until further instructions, said Dr Rajan Kunkolienkar, the
nodal officer for SARS.
The NICD experts in the meanwhile have taken samples of the
patient once again and also of his wife, father and three
GMC staffers for laboratory tests. The report is expected
by Tuesday.
The marine engineer, who was earlier discharged on 12 April
after keeping him in the isolation ward for three days, was
taken back into custody on the night of 16 April, after he
was tested positive for SARS by the National Institute of
Virology, Pune.
But the medical experts arrived at a conclusion today morning
to discharge him since he had already passed the stage of
passing the infection to others and was clinically fit, not
showing any kind of symptoms notified by the World Health
Organisation.
According to Parrikar, there is no risk from him anymore
in terms of SARS, the deadly disease that has been killing
hundreds of people in different parts of the world.
"India is not among the 26 SARS-infected countries identified
so far, though the Goa case may established a fact that one
local got infected abroad but was totally cured of clinical
symptoms, posing no danger to public life", said the
CM.
Parrikar also observed that only eight countries have been
identified of having a local chain while rest of the countries
had cases of bringing such victims from outside.
"India is not among them", he said.
He also read out the WHO report, stating that 95 per cent
of such cases are non-spreading and India has not found a
single case of such spreading till date.
The chief minister however had a meeting with the port and
airport authorities as well as the airline officials to begin
an awareness campaign among the passengers and appealing them
to voluntarily come forward for a check-up, if they have visited
the identified 26 countries recently.
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