The man who drove the D’silva family from Ambarnath to Pune has tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), taking the total number of cases in Maharashtra to five, according to state Health Minister Digvijay Khanvilkar.The driver, whose name the minister refused to disclose as part of the government decision to mask the identities of SARS patients, was admitted to Kasturba Hospital in Mumbai a couple of days ago. ‘‘All the people who had come in contact with the driver have been quarantined and there is no cause for panic since the driver had been responding to treatment,’’ he said.The driver’s SARS status was confirmed after reports of tests conducted by Pune-based National Institute of Virology (NIV) proved positive today. He was the second patient in Mumbai to have tested positive besides 32-year-old Bhaskar Murthy is currently in New Delhi after being discharged from Kasturba Hospital.The MCD have taken up the task of tracing all the people who came in contact with Murthy, who had travelled to Delhi on the day his samples tested positive for the SARS virus. His contacts are the entire crew and co-passengers of the 9.30-am Delhi-Mumbai Jet airways flight on April 26.After disembarking in Delhi, he had visited a few friends and relatives and had travelled in a taxi for hours before being tracked down by the health authorities at around 3 pm. Meanwhile, a suspected case showing clinical symptoms was admitted to Pune’s Sassoon Hospital on Sunday morning. Deputy Director of Health, Pune region, Dr B P Gaikwad said the 27-year-old software engineer from Pune had returned to the city after a 10-day visit to Beijing on April 26. While he showed no symptoms when he was screened at the Delhi airport, he felt sick at the Pune airport and directly went to the hospital. Dr A C Mishra, officer-in-charge at the NIV, said they were receiving several samples of suspected SARS cases from various parts of the country and investigations were underway.Deputy Director of Health Services (Pune region) Dr B P Gaikwad on Monday said they will request the D’silvas, who will be discharged tomorrow, to go back to Ambarnath to avoid confusion or chaos on account of rumours. Meanwhile, drama surrounded the discharge of Ashitav Purkayastha, who was declared SARS positive yesterday at AMRI-Apollo Hospital. His sister said that unless a test result was obtained from the National Institute of Virology (NIV), the family would not take him back.Following protests from relatives, the hospital authorities had to reverse their decision.State Director of Health Services (DHS) Dr Pravakar Chatterjee had said that on the basis of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) ‘‘discharge and follow up protocol’’, the AMRI-Apollo Hospital had released Purkayastha.When Chatterjee was asked how a man described as SARS-positive just a day ago could be released, he pointed to the WHO directive.
