SARS scare bails up 90 Australians

NEW DELHI

NEW DELHITWO Australian teenagers suspected of contracting the deadly SARS virus have been isolated in an Indian hospital while members of their group are quarantined in youth hostels.A group of 89 Australian missionaries had been under police guard in two hostels in Secunderabad in central India after Luke Charles Wilcox, 19, of Adelaide, and Robert Jason Gudall, 18, showed symptoms of severe acute respiratory syndrome.The World Health Organisation warned that the virus, which has killed 436 people and infected more than 6200 in 27 countries, could survive outside the human body for several days on surfaces such as door handles and table tops.The WHO report suggests the deadly disease can be picked up without direct contact with an infected person.Chief local SARS response coordinator for Secunderabad, Kandala Venu, said it was not likely the Australians had SARS.But health authorities were not taking any chances and had asked 23 in the group to stay in isolation at a YMCA hostel, he said. The rest had been released.”We are not taking any chances and have requested these people to remain in isolation for at least one more day,” Professor Venu said. “So far none of them have shown any SARS symptoms.”Police were at the hostels to ensure they stayed confined for the quarantine period.Professor Venu said blood and urine samples from Mr Wilcox and Mr Gudall had been sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune, in the west of India.”Both patients are now recovering,” he said. “There is no respiratory distress in both of them. Their chest X-ray shows that their lungs are clear.”Mr Wilcox reportedly complained of high fever, body ache and breathing difficulty when he went to hospital on Saturday.Professor Venu said Mr Wilcox would be kept in intensive care until test results arrived. He had a temperature of 40C.”The course of the treatment will not change and we will quarantine him for a week,” Professor Venu said.An Australian Foreign Affairs Department spokeswoman said Canadians, Norwegians and other Europeans also were in the missionary group.Mr Wilcox’s family, living in Chiang Rai, Thailand, did not know of his condition until told last night by a reporter. His brother Zachary, 14, said Luke had arrived in central India from Thailand on Thursday to join a youth outreach program.A 25-year-old Qantas flight attendant could be released from hospital today. She was put in isolation on Friday after showing SARS symptoms on Friday but her condition has improved.(Source: The West Australian, 05 May 2003)