Suspected SARS case in Port Blair

A suspected case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome was detained in the Union territory of Andaman and Nicobar on Wednesday when a tourist from Britain arrived in Port Blair with high fever and a few other symptoms similar to SARS.

Martin Richard Cook, 26, arrived by sea having contracted high fever during this journey from Kolkata.

When the captain of the mainland-bound ship mv Nicobar signalled to the port authority about the suspected SARS case, health workers and doctors from the local health department went to the jetty and got him admitted in the G B Pant Government Hospital.

But Dr Namita Ali, director of health services in the Union territory, later told the United News of India that preliminary findings suggested that it was not a SARS case.

But as a precautionary measure, Cook has been admitted to a separate ward of the hospital and his blood samples and X-rays will be sent to hospitals on the mainland on Thursday for confirmatory tests.

The Andaman and Nicobar islands get a lot of foreign visitors. The health department, which was already on alert about SARS, has now intensified its checks at all ports and the airport in Port Blair.