Flight Attendants in Sydney SARS alert
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Flight Attendants in Sydney SARS alert
From MSN.
Two people with suspected cases of the SARS virus were being treated in isolation in a Sydney hospital, NSW Health authorities say.
NSW Minister for Health Morris Iemma said the two flight attendants, who returned to Australia from China on Tuesday, were in isolation at the St Vincent's Hospital.
Both had sore throats and a fever and were immediately isolated while tests were carried out, according to acting director of NSW Health's communicable diseases branch Paul Armstrong.
"We will find out in due course whether it is SARS," Mr Armstrong told the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
"They have been in China within the incubation period for SARS.
"Because of that, certain protocols and procedures have been put in place."
Chinese health officials in Hong Kong have reported one confirmed case of SARS and two suspected cases in the Chinese province of Guangdong since SARS was said to be contained last July.
Last year, there were more than 8,099 cases of SARS including nearly 800 deaths - most of them in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Toronto, Taiwan and Hanoi.
Mr Iemma said the state government would reconvene its SARS taskforce if the threat of the respiratory disease entering the country re-emerged.
The NSW government began active surveillance for the disease on March 17 last year with nurses stationed at Sydney airport to refer any suspected cases.
Only one case of SARS was confirmed in Australia involving a foreign tourist who became ill after arriving from Hong Kong.
"It is important that state and federal health officials maintain vigilance on SARS and we take the advice of the health experts," Mr Iemma said in a statement.
Australia scaled down its measures to detect and respond to SARS on the World Health Organisation's announcement on July 5 last year that the person-to-person transmission of the virus had been broken.
Two people with suspected cases of the SARS virus were being treated in isolation in a Sydney hospital, NSW Health authorities say.
NSW Minister for Health Morris Iemma said the two flight attendants, who returned to Australia from China on Tuesday, were in isolation at the St Vincent's Hospital.
Both had sore throats and a fever and were immediately isolated while tests were carried out, according to acting director of NSW Health's communicable diseases branch Paul Armstrong.
"We will find out in due course whether it is SARS," Mr Armstrong told the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
"They have been in China within the incubation period for SARS.
"Because of that, certain protocols and procedures have been put in place."
Chinese health officials in Hong Kong have reported one confirmed case of SARS and two suspected cases in the Chinese province of Guangdong since SARS was said to be contained last July.
Last year, there were more than 8,099 cases of SARS including nearly 800 deaths - most of them in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Toronto, Taiwan and Hanoi.
Mr Iemma said the state government would reconvene its SARS taskforce if the threat of the respiratory disease entering the country re-emerged.
The NSW government began active surveillance for the disease on March 17 last year with nurses stationed at Sydney airport to refer any suspected cases.
Only one case of SARS was confirmed in Australia involving a foreign tourist who became ill after arriving from Hong Kong.
"It is important that state and federal health officials maintain vigilance on SARS and we take the advice of the health experts," Mr Iemma said in a statement.
Australia scaled down its measures to detect and respond to SARS on the World Health Organisation's announcement on July 5 last year that the person-to-person transmission of the virus had been broken.
