Tuesday, 25 September 2012 03:33
by MOHAMED IQBAL
DOHA: The Supreme Council of Health (SCH) yesterday confirmed reports about a Qatari man affected with a new SARS-like respiratory virus that left him critically ill in a London hospital.
While the incident has prompted the World Health Organisation (WHO) to issue a global alert for the virus, the SCH has discounted fears about a possible spread of the disease in the country saying no second case has been detected here until now.
The news was circulating on social media yesterday, with people expressing fears about a possible outbreak, especially during the forthcoming
Haj pilgrimage. “The one we heard today is the only case detected in Qatar until now. All members of his family have been tested, but none of them were found affected,” Dr Mohammed Al Thani, director of the Public Health Department at SCH said in a news conference held on short notice last evening.
He said the victim had contracted the illness in Saudi Arabia where he went for Umrah earlier this month.
The 49-year-old Qatari was admitted to an intensive care unit in Doha on September 7 suffering from acute respiratory infection and kidney failure before being transferred to Britain by air ambulance on September 11, the WHO said yesterday.
“He was admitted to the HMC but we decided to send him to the UK when we found that he needed further tests,” said Mohammed Al Thani.
A Saudi Arabian national died earlier this year from a virtually identical virus, the WHO said, while Saudi medical authorities said they were investigating other possible cases of the disease.
The WHO confirmed the illness belongs to coronavirus family but was not SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which swept out of China in 2003, killing more than 800 people worldwide.
“These are the only two known cases of the disease until now. A third suspected case was reported but it has not been confirmed. The family members of the Saudi victim were also tested but none of them was found infected. We don’t have enough information about the illness. We still cannot say whether it will spread through human contact, or if it is curable,” said Mohammed Al Thani.
Dr Abdullatheef Al Khal, head of the communicable diseases section at HMC said HMC had alerted all its hospitals and emergency departments about the new disease. The illness was detected in the UK because the HMC laboratory does not have the facilities to identify the virus, he added
“We want to reassure the public that there is nothing to worry since there is no indication of the illness spreading fast. It has not yet become an epidemic. However, we are taking all necessary precautions,” said Al Khal.
He, however, added that Qatar has not initiated any special precautions for Haj pilgrims because the current situation does not demand that.
“We are advising all pilgrims to take all the required vaccinations at least two weeks in advance and follow general hygiene like washing the hands frequently during the pilgrimage,” said Al Khal.
Dr Mohammed Al Hajari, head of the communicable diseases department at SCH said Qatar was waiting for official instructions from the WHO and the Saudi authorities on precautions related to Haj pilgrims.
Meanwhile, Britain’s Health Protection Agency (HPA) confirmed the presence of the new coronavirus and then found that it was a 99.5 percent match with a virus obtained from the lung tissue of the 60-year-old Saudi man who died earlier this year.
Coronaviruses are causes of the common cold but can also include more severe illnesses including SARS.
Quoting Saudi media, agencies reported yesterday that three people, including the Qatari man were diagnosed with the virus.
The HPA, stressed no one else in Britain, including those who had come into contact with the man, were reporting symptoms.
The HPA said the new virus was “different from any that have previously been identified in humans.”
It said there were encouraging signs that it was not as infectious as SARS as there had been no evidence of illness in people who had been in contact with the Qatari or the Saudi, including in health workers.
“Based on what we know about other coronaviruses, many of these contacts will already have passed the period when they could have caught the virus from the infected person,” it said.
John Oxford, professor at the University of London, said he was “somewhat relaxed” because he believed the illness was more likely to behave “like a nasty infection rather than join the ‘exception’ group like SARS.”
“This new virus does not appear to be in the same ‘big bang’ group,” he added. “I am very pleased that it does not!”
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/qat...eak-fears.html