‘No plan to combat SARS outbreak’

THE Government was last night accused of having no strategy to tackle the killer SARS virus.

Tests on a Chinese woman suspected of having the virus proved negative yesterday, but the handling of the case showed there was no plan to deal with a potential epidemic, said Fine Gael.

“There is no plan, there are no isolation facilities, no screening of travellers from affected areas and no precautions to deal with an outbreak,” Fine Gael deputy health spokesman Dan Neville said.

Though she has tested negative for SARS, the woman at the centre of the scare will remain in Cherry Orchard Hospital, Dublin, until the disease can be ruled out.

Eastern Regional Health Board spokeswoman Maureen Browne said the patient would be monitored for as long as necessary.

The woman, who flew in to Dublin from Beijing last Monday, is being kept in a quarantined ward, along with her sister, who does not have symptoms of the disease but is staying in hospital as a precaution.

Public health doctors, who broke their strike to assist with the case, have asked 27 residents at a Dun Laoghaire hostel where the woman spent Easter weekend to remain there under a voluntary quarantine.

Yesterday, the Labour party said the SARS scare was a wake-up call for the Government to produce a national emergency plan to combat the threat.

Health Minister Mícheál Martin rejected the claims and said his department’s SARS expert group was handling the matter. Mr Martin admitted the contingency plan for reporting the SARS virus had broken down in the case of the Chinese woman.

But after the tests proved negative last night, Mr Martin insisted the most senior experts in infectious diseases handled the case correctly.

“The results of the tests vindicate the action and treatment that they gave in the hospital on Friday night,” Mr Martin said.

But Labour said a national emergency plan similar to that imposed during the foot-and-mouth scare was still needed to combat the threat of the virus.

“Travellers coming from high-risk areas must be monitored and screened at airports and a quarantine centre for the treatment of suspected cases must be set up,” Labour Health spokeswoman Liz McManus said. Labour have produced a plan which they believe must be implemented to protect the public from the virus.

However, a Department of Health spokeswoman said it had been advised screening at points of entry would be ineffective. She said the expert group had recommended that multi-lingual signs be put up in all airports.

“EU advice suggests that there is no point in screening at ports because there is a 10-day incubation period for the SARS,” the spokeswoman said.

The expert group will meet today to discuss the Special Olympics and whether or not to ban athletes coming from SARS- affected countries.