|
Sars scare in Cape Town
12/04/2003 09:07 - (SA)
Gerjo Hoffman and Marenet Jordaan, Die Burger
Cape Town - Passengers on an Air Malaysia flight from Kuala Lumpur have been forced to remain on board the plane in an isolated area of Cape Town International while emergency services determined whether two passengers had the deadly Sars virus.
Meanwhile, a Cape Town man is in isolation after he reported to hospital with a temperature of 40°.
Ghaulib Sali, airport manager of Malaysian Airlines, said the plane was moved to an isolated area of the runway while emergency services tried to determine whether two Taiwanese women had the virus.
The women were en route from Kuala Lumpur to Cape Town when a flight attendant suspected they were suffering from typical symptoms of Sars. They were asthmatic and had a high fever.
Dr Wayne Smith, deputy director of Metro emergency services, later gave passengers the assurance that the women did not have Sars. The women had also not been to areas stricken with the deadly respiratory disease. Their condition will, however, be monitored by the National Institute for Contagious Diseases for the next 10 days.
One of the passengers, Terrence Heath of Cape Town, said he was on his way back from holiday in Bali when all passengers were issued masks and gloves.
"We waited on the runway for about an hour," he said.
Hajr Toefy, of Sydney, another passenger, said the experience was scary and very stressful. "I would never even think about visiting parts of the world where the virus is rampant."
Some of the passengers aboard the plane were afraid that they would be placed in quarantine and that they would have to cancel their holiday in South Africa.
Danny Abrahams for the Western Cape health ministry confirmed that a 31-year-old Capetonian on Friday reported to N1 City Hospital with a temperature of 40°.
The man recently returned from a trip to Sao Paulo in Brazil.
Hospital manager Dr Anton van Wyk said although the man did not have the symptoms of Sars, he was in a private ward where he was being treated for respiratory infection.
The Health Department on Friday said it was being overwhelmed with calls from people who were concerned that they might have been in contact with the virus. The department in a statement on Friday said the situation in SA could not be compared to that in Hong Kong, parts of China or Singapore.
The statement also said South Africans were at this stage not at risk.
The Chinese businessman, 62, who has been hospitalised in Pretoria, is at this stage the suspected Sars case in the country. He is being treated in an isolated ward in Pretoria East Hospital, where his condition has been described as stable, but critical. Preliminary tests have proved negative, but more tests are being done.
- Die Burger
|
News
