In perspective SARS vs ARS..
Message 18840356
allafrica.com
April 14, 2003
Posted to the web April 14, 2003
Sam Gonza
Nairobi
If the casual manner with which authorities in Kenya treated the country's rugby players at their arrival from Hong Kong on March 31 is anything to go by, it may not be long before Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) finds its way around.
The 12 players and 3 officials had travelled to Hong Kong just before a WHO international alert on SARS on March 12. Upon their return, they were allowed to mix freely with other arriving travellers at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi.
They were cleared and went home as though there had been no international alert and doctors handling communicable diseases had to go looking for them in their houses.
Dr. Eric Muchiri of Kenya Division of Communicable and Vector Borne Diseases admitted that a mistake had been made. He also expressed concern that one of the players had not been traced then.
In Uganda, the health ministry has advised doctors in the country "to have a high index of suspicion", according to Paul Kaggwa, a spokesperson for health authorities.
A suspected case has been reported in South Africa, and the country is running low on ordinary flu vaccine following demand.
Dr. Andrew Jamieson, a medical doctor at the country's Med Info Agency was recently reported saying, "The current northern hemisphere flu season has prompted an increase for flu shots in South Africa."
Two months ago, a disease similar to SARS called Acute Respiratory Syndrome (ARS), killed several hundred people when it swept through Congo and Madagascar before it run out of steam.
The threat posed by SARS, caused by a variant of the common cold virus, coronavirus, is serious. Air travel and lack of precautionary measures, as in the case of Kenyan rugby players arriving back from Hong Kong, could easily make the disease spread to Africa.
In addition, the manner in which African communities get involved in personal care of patients is now worrying medics. In the event of SARS outbreak, it is clear that they (communities) would not do so without serious repercussions.
African nations should learn from China's experience with SARS, and resolve not to hide such diseases from world gaze, should it break out.
Chinese authorities, worried that their tourism industry would be severely hurt, opted to keep silent over the attack for a while.
It is now emerging that the outbreak of the infection in China may date back to last November. It was only after deaths occurred outside the country, that Chinese government officials realised they could not sustain the silence much longer.
According to Asians newspapers such as the Daily Times of Pakistan, Chinese journalists who talked on condition of anonymity, said the government had vetoed any mention of the disease in the media.
But then, people died and doctors and nurses were equally affected.
Speculation and panic spread wide within days. Shops sold out disinfectants and remedies for colds, as people sought to protect their families.
pools of saliva, caused by incessant spitting are a common site in towns and trains in China, "a situation made worse by overcrowding." Epidemiologists say such practices, combined with overcrowding and pollution, plus a history of viral outbreaks made Guangzhou province one of the world's most suitable breeding grounds for infectious viruses. |
