Materia Medica Malaysiana

Practise hygiene, travellers told

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians travelling to China should practise a high level of personal hygiene and avoid coming in contact with people having Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) symptoms such as coughing, Health Minister Datuk Chua Jui Meng said.

He said that precautionary measures were necessary though the current situation did not warrant a travel restriction.

He gave this advice after the Chinese Health Ministry confirmed that a 32-year-old man down with SARS symptoms had the virus yesterday.

In an immediate response, Communicable Disease Control director Dr Ramlee Rahmat said that Malaysia would have to wait for World Health Organisation (WHO) advice on the next course of action.

However, he said the ministry had activated its surveillance and screening for SARS while hospitals were on alert.

“We are keeping tabs on the situation and doing all we need to do at the moment,” he said.

On a 31-year-old Malaysian woman isolated at Kuala Lumpur Hospital on Sunday upon her return from Guangzhou on Saturday with high fever, cough and sore throat, Chua said she was found to be healthy yesterday.

He said she would not be discharged until doctors were satisfied it was safe for her to leave.

“As of today, the patient’s fever was down, her chest X-rays were clear and she had no symptoms of SARS,” Chua said.

A ministry official said the woman was diagnosed to have suffered from viral fever, adding that results of specimens sent for testing at Institute of Medical Research would be known in a few days.

Chua said the ministry started screening passengers from Guangdong at four international airports - KLIA, Bayan Lepas, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching – since Saturday.

“Of the 3,270 screened so far, only one had fever,” he said, adding that the 31-year-old woman had visited Guangdong, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai before returning to Guangzhou to board a flight back to KLIA.