No labs, killer fever scare grips airports

Panic spread at Kolkata airport yesterday as a Bangladeshi passenger suffered from bouts of breathlessness, triggering off suspicions that he was carrying the killer pneumonia virus. ‘‘I examined him and found that he was a patient of bronchial asthma,’’ said deputy airport health officer Asit Choudhury.

The airport has set up two counters to examine passengers from countries that have registered cases of killer pneumonia. ‘‘The National Institute of Communicable Diseases has given us a detailed guideline on how to act on these cases. We have also asked all airlines not to accept passengers who show symptoms of high fever, breathlessness and cough,’’ Choudhury said.

In Bangalore, too, doctors at the international airport are scanning passengers but there is no virology lab here that can be of any help. ‘‘There is a virology lab in Pune and one in Mumbai, we could send blood samples there but it is unlikely they will have the sera to test this new virus,’’ says Dr R.D. Holla of Manipal Hospital.