Measures in place to contain possible SARS outbreak

Although there have as yet been no known cases of the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in the country, health officials in Pakistan have established measures to contain its possible spread. "We have issued detailed instructions and information about the disease to all the port health authorities [airports and seaports], and are watching the situation closely," Athar Saeed Dil, the executive director of the National Institute of Health (NIH), told IRIN in the capital, Islamabad, on Thursday. Dil was recently appointed as the nation's focal point for SARS, to lead and coordinate the efforts to keep the virus out of the country. SARS did not officially exist a month ago, but, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), as of Wednesday, a cumulative total of 2,722 cases with 106 deaths had been reported from 16 countries. The disease originated in China's southern poorer Guangdong Province, from where it spread to neighbouring Hong Kong, other Far East Asian counties and Canada. Although the mortality rate from SARS is around four percent, the disease is extremely contagious and spreads very fast. Unlike HIV or hepatitis, it can travel via coughs and sneezes. "We have asked relevant departments to provide quarantine, checking and cleaning facilities at the airports," Dil said, adding that these authorities had in turn informed airlines managements, who were checking people for symptoms on flights. Pakistan shares a 523-km border with China along the northern thinly populated Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges. The 4,500-metre-high Khunjerab Pass links the two countries through the Sust border crossing. Heavy snows block the route through the winter, but it opens in early May, facilitating the movement of thousands of traders until October. Dil said the NIH had already instructed health authorities in northern Pakistan to provide all necessary medical facilities at Sust so as to prevent the spread of SARS. "There is no reason to create panic," he said. Faizullah Kakar, an epidemiologist with WHO, told IRIN that the agency was backing government's efforts to keep the infection out of the South Asian nation of 140 million. "I am more concerned about the Pakistanis who are already in the countries where the SARS infection is raging, and they are travelling here by air," he said. Kakar went on to say that there were minimal chances of SARS-infected people to being able to use the hazardous Khunjerab Pass. He added that if the disease was travelling from east to west, Pakistan's eastern neighbour, India, was expected to report cases first. "With today's air links, you can't really tell how it will spread," he added.