Health Minister says woman with cough SARS free
Stabroek News
April 28, 2003
A Guyanese woman just back from a visit to New York has been deemed negative for the SARS virus which is sweeping Asia but she has been quarantined on a voluntary basis for seven days.
Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy yesterday told Stabroek News that the woman has been declared free of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and had been sent home.
The woman, who is a regular visitor to New York, is on a voluntary seven-day quarantine and is being seen on a daily basis by health officials.
The United States is one of the countries which has reported SARS cases but there has been no death in that country.
The minister told Stabroek News that the woman had visited her physician who on hearing her compliant transferred her to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) to be checked for the disease. He said the doctor after hearing that the woman was a regular visitor to the US suspected that she had the disease and referred her to the public institution.
Dr Ramsammy said that the woman was seen by both the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Rudolph Cummings and epidemiologist, Dr Navendra Persaud, both of whom cleared her as free of the disease.
She was seen by the doctors again yesterday and according to the minister “she is fine.”
The minister pointed out having a dry cough alone does not means a person is infected with SARS. Careful attention will be focused on persons suffering from high fever and one or more respiratory symptoms including coughing, shortness of breath and difficulty in breathing.
Close contact within ten days of the onset of symptoms with a person who has been diagnosed with SARS and a history of travel within ten days to infected areas would also be reasons for precautions.
Close contact means having cared for, having lived with, or having had direct contact with respiratory secretions and body fluids of persons with SARS.
Minister Ramsammy said that while he has asked physicians to be cautious and to be on the look out for any suspected case he is not keen on having such information out in the public unless it has been confirmed that it is a case of SARS.
He pointed out that such reports could cause public panic unnecessarily.
“While I have told doctors that a person who has a history of travelling to an affected area and complaining of any of the symptoms to report the case, I don’t think it is wise to make public announcements.”
SARS, a respiratory infection with a mortality rate around the world of 6%, has killed at least nearly 300 people and infected close to 5,000. (Samantha Alleyne)
