UK: Man in hospital after travelling on flight from Taiwan
Medical tests are ongoing on a man suspected to be the fifth person in the UK suffering from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
The man was admitted to an unspecified hospital in the east of England on Saturday after returning to the UK from Taiwan on 29 March. The Department of Health said: “Following admission to hospital he has been treated in isolation as a precautionary measure and his condition is stable. Other people who were in close contact with him in the UK are being monitored in case they develop any symptoms but there is no evidence of this so far.”
British Airways has now cut by half its flights to Hong Kong and is routing them via Bangkok so staff do not need to spend the night in Hong Kong, while the World Health Organisation has warned against travel to the former British colony unless absolutely necessary.
Meanwhile, travel health expert Richard Dawood, writing in the Daily Telegraph, also recommends postponing travel to Hong Kong or the Chinese province of Guangdong. With regard to the safety of air travel, he states that there IS a risk on on-board infection, even if it is very small. The World Health Organisation (WHO), he writes, have acknowledged an “increased risk” of transmission to anyone sat “in the immediate vicinity of a sufferer”.
For the latest WHO advice visit www.who.int/csr/sars/en/.
