- The British government came under growing pressure yesterday
to have students returning to Britain from the Far East quarantined in
an attempt to prevent the spread of the deadly Sars virus.
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- Dr Ruth Watkins, one of the country's leading virologists,
accused the authorities of failing to do enough to tackle the problem.
She said that university students, as well as schoolchildren, should be
quarantined for 10 days on their arrival from an area of infection.
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- Although the Government opposes such measures, a number
of schools which have pupils returning from Hong Kong, Singapore and some
areas of China have already decided not to allow them to attend school
for 10 days while they undergo medical check-ups.
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- "Quarantining children and students coming back
from Hong Kong is an eminently sensible thing to do," said Dr Watkins.
"Sars is spread both by respiratory droplets and by contact. It's
on hands, plastic surfaces, computer and classroom equipment and can stay
there for up to three hours."
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- There is concern about students because they live in
tightly-packed halls of residence in conditions ideal for transmission.
Sars has been identified as a previously unknown strain of the corona virus,
which causes the common cold. It produces flu-like symptoms such as high
temperature and breathing difficulties, and kills about four people out
of every 100 who catch it.
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- Dr Watkins, a former clinical virologist at St Mary's
Hospital in Paddington, west London, said: "If someone comes back,
and five days after arrival they feel thoroughly unwell and they turn out
to have a temperature of 102, they could already have been infecting others.
There would be consequences for the students' families but also for the
teachers and school staff."
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- She suggested that the Department of Health was being
complacent. "I'm not really sure why the Government is taking the
line it is on this. I suspect there is an element of suppressing panic."
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- Her advice came as Hong Kong announced the biggest increase
in the number of deaths from Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) since
the crisis broke six weeks ago. Government officials reported 12 more deaths
from the disease, bringing the total in the territory to 81.
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- Saudi Arabia yesterday reported its first suspected case,
while the situation in Canada, the worst-affected country outside Asia,
is deteriorating. There are fears that the Sars outbreak is out of control
and cannot be contained in the Toronto area. More than 300 cases have been
identified in Canada and 13 people have died.
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- British Government scientists insist, however, that quarantining
pupils is unnecessary. More than 150 children from 32 boarding schools
are at home or at study and activity camps in Dorset and the Isle of Wight
this weekend but Prof Angus Nicoll, the director of the Communicable Disease
Surveillance Centre at the Health Protection Agency, told The Telegraph:
"We understand the anxiety there is in schools but this isn't necessarily
a policy we would support. Looking at the pattern of this infection, it's
actually quite uncommon in young children."
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- However, Prof Nicoll admitted that he was "fearful"
of further cases in this country, saying that the arrival of the disease
in India increased the virus's "force of infection" - the potential
for it to spread to Britain.
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- India recorded its first suspected outbreak last Thursday
and a second possible case was reported yesterday. About 520,000 journeys
are made to Britain from India every year, while there are 72,000 arrivals
from Hong Kong, until now one of the worst-hit areas.
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- Government efforts, co-ordinated by the Health Protection
Agency (HPA), the Department of Health and the NHS, have centred on priming
health care staff across the country. There is no vaccine available for
Sars.
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- Every family doctor was notified by emergency e-mail
to primary health care trusts in March, while the HPA has 42 local teams
around the country. Health checks are made on anyone thought to have been
in close contact with suspected Sars victims. Meanwhile, swabs from possible
victims are couriered to the HPA in London and tested as quickly as possible.
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- Contingency plans are in place to deal with an outbreak
at a hospital. Patients at risk will be cared for in isolation while staff
showing flu-like symptoms will be told to stay at home.
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- Experts are in constant touch with the World Health Organisation
and other governments as well as with their specialists around the country.
There have been seven suspected cases in Britain, none of them fatal.
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- "We are fearful because of the experience of our
colleagues in Toronto, Hanoi and Hong Kong. But at the same time I'm confident
because we have been pretty fast out of our blocks," said Prof Nicoll.
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- "We've had a huge advantage that Canada, for instance,
didn't in that we knew it was coming. We're at a stage where we haven't
yet been surprised."
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