Delhi gets a visitor from home of SARS

The 29-year-old, an employee with a company in Gurgaon, arrived here last night from Guangdong in a Cathay Pacific flight and complained of cough and cold. Health officials said she is being treated in isolation and her urine, blood and sputum samples will be tested in NICD, though they insist it is just a ‘precautionary measure’.

‘‘She reported to a private doctor with symptoms of cough and cold. The doctor suspected a pnuemonia patch on the lungs and referred her to the Infectious Diseases Hospital, where she is being treated in isolation,’’ said Director-General Health Services Dr S P Agarwal.

Dr Agarwal, however, said that she did not fit in the ‘‘definition of SARS victim’’ and has no fever and is asymptomatic.‘‘The private doctor had raised suspicion of a pneumonic patch which was ruled out after a second X-ray,’’ he added.

Meanwhile, following reports of non-cooperation from some SARS suspects/probables, Union Health Ministry is considering listing SARS as a notifiable disease. Speaking at a press conference today, Agarwal said the the issue is under consideration. The only notifiable diseases in India at present are plague, yellow fever and cholera.

The issue would also be discussed at a meeting of state health secretaries to be held here on Thursday. ‘‘If a disease is listed as a notifiable disease, action can be taken against the patients if they don’t abide by the government advisory. If people do not cooperate in the treatment of a disease which can become a public hazard, the patient can be isolated by force as well,’’ said Dr Shiv Lal, Director, National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD),

The number of suspected cases, who were isolated and their biological sample sent to test at either the NICD, Delhi, or the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, has increased to 14, as two more suspects have been reported in Nasik and Jaipur.

The 23-year-old patient admitted at civil hospital in Nasik had reached India on April 14 from Houston and developed symptoms of common cold on April 20. Another 29-year-old patient in Jaipur arrived from New York in a KLM flight on April 14 and reported with fever and cough to a private practitioner in Jaipur yesterday.

Meanwhile, Dr Agarwal said 25 people who had either attended wedding of Julie D’Silva or had come in to close contact with the three SARS patients in Pune have been traced and quarantined.

‘‘All the three patients, one of whom got married yesterday, are afebrile (without fever) and are being treated in the Siddhartha hospital in isolation. Though the girl was discharged yesterday she has been brought back as a precautionary measure,’’ said Dr Agarwal. He, however, did not answer when asked why was she discharged earlier.