Govt on toes, puts SARS on CD Alert

The fresh spurt of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Singapore and Hong Kong and reports of ‘probable cases’ from as far as South Africa in the past few days, has forced the government to be on a constant alert.

After ensuring proper distribution of proformas at airports, the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, has now taken out a special issue of its monthly magazine CD Alert on the SARS to be despatched to all the primary health centres in the country. The magazine contains the history and epidemiological information of the disease, the case definition and probable case symptoms given by WHO. It also carries information about the management of both probable and suspected cases.

‘‘NICD has published about 40,000 copies of the magazine this time, which would be despatched to the primary health centres after the holidays are over,’’ said Dr B.M. Das, Director of Emergency Medical Services, NICD. ‘‘It is essential for doctors to know about the disease, which has symptoms like influenza, so that diagnosis becomes easy,’’ he added.

The information is followed by a proforma that is being distributed to the passengers disembarking in the country. This contains a list of the countries affected with SARS to aid medicos in relating the travel history.