Check for SARS finds yellow fever patients

The SARS surveillance at India’s international airports is starting to show some results — though in a strange way. After a gap of...

The SARS surveillance at India’s international airports is starting to show some results — though in a strange way. After a gap of four years, the health officials have managed to quarantine five passengers — including a joint secretary with the government — suspected to be affected with yellow fever.

The suspects have to spend about 10 days in isolation at the yellow fever ward in the airport. While three, including the government officer, were in quarantine last month, two persons have been quarantined this month at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport.

The ward now has a ‘suspect’, a passenger from Ethiopia who did not possess any vaccination papers. Another one was discharged on May 13 only after he made his family send the WHO-yellow fever recognition certificate.

The last suspected case of yellow fever was detected in Mumbai four years ago. The checks were done by immigration officials before the SARS scare.

‘‘As the screening for the disease is not strict, people don’t even bother to carry their WHO certificates with them,’’ said an official the airport health department. ‘‘Government has a clear law which requires all the passengers coming from certain South American and African countries to present the WHO certificate showing the status of the disease,’’ he added.

As per WHO guidelines, all the passengers coming from the affected country to a yellow fever-free country have to get vaccinated 10 days before travelling. The vaccination has to be done at a WHO recognised centre. ‘‘A passenger is required to be quarantined even if the vaccination has been done before nine days,’’ the official said.

According to experts the surviellance of the disease is important as Indians are genetically susceptible to the disease. ‘‘Unlike SARS, if the disease spreads in the country, it can just turn into an epidemic. The mode of transmission is Ades mosquitoes which are present everywhere in the country,’’ the official said.