CHANNELS SERVICES |  
One of two Chinese flight attendants placed in a Sydney hospital isolation ward this week with symptoms similar to SARS was declared free of the deadly disease Thursday following clinical tests. Results on the second patient were still awaited but a senior health official said it was "strongly believed" Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) could be ruled out. Although the two female flight attendants who arrived in Sydney Tuesday aboard a flight from China's southern Guangdong province appeared free of SARS, government officials here announced plans Thursday to designate SARS-specific hospitals and local fever clinics to handle any future outbreak. The two female flight attendants were placed in a quarantine unit of Sydney's Saint Vincent's Hospital Tuesday suffering from fever, headaches and other pains. Their condition aroused concern as China has recently reported one confirmed case and two suspected cases of SARS in Guangdong, months after the disease was considered contained in July. But Thursday the director of New South Wales state communicable disease department, Paul Armstrong, said clinical test results indicated the pair were not infected with SARS. "An alternative diagnosis of influenza has been made for one of the patients," Armstrong said. "Results are still awaited on the second patient although her condition has improved and it is strongly believed that SARS can be ruled out," he said. Both patients were to remain under observation in hospital overnight and if they remain in a stable condition would be discharged Friday, Armstrong said. The scare prompted Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson to call on Australian authorities to review their SARS response plans. "You go over your handling mechanisms, you just make certain they are all in place, they are all ready and the procedures you put in place, should it re-emerge, are ready to run," he said. Meanwhile in New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, a Taskforce on SARS issued a series of recommendations Thursday including a proposal to designate a small number of hospitals to exclusively manage and isolate SARS patients in the event of an outbreak. Local health services would also choose sites like community centers to act as fever clinics equipped with medical professionals to diagnose people who fear they may have SARS and refer them to a SARS hospital. The NSW state government said it would implement all the recommendations. SARS emerged in China in late 2002 and infected more than 8,000 people last year, killing nearly 800, mostly in China, Hong Kong and Singapore but also in Canada. During that outbreak, Australia had only one confirmed case of SARS, a foreign tourist who became ill after arriving from Hong Kong but who later recovered. All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Quick Links |
|
| The contents herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2003 - TerraDaily. AFP Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |