The global health alert about the flu, and the panic it has triggered, is straight out of a Robin Cook novel. Fear of flying into South Asia is rising; the US-based Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a grim travel advisory to cancel travel to parts of Asia.
What is this mystery flu all about? Doctors call it severe acute respiratory syndrome, or sars, a highly contagious form of pneumonia, which originated in China last November. If you are travelling to Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, places where new cases have emerged, be careful and remember to wear a surgical mask in crowded places.According to the who, the symptoms include: fever higher than 100.4 F, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulty. The flu has no known cause or treatment. So far, commonly prescribed anti-viral drugs and antibiotics have proven ineffective. Docs in Frankfurt and Hong Kong claimed to have cracked the virus that is causing the killer flu: it resembles a paramyxovirus, the family of microbes that causes measles, mumps and canine distemper.
A slew of tests is suggested for correct diagnosis: chest radiograph, pulse oximetry, blood cultures, sputum Gram’s stain and culture, and testing for viral respiratory pathogens like influenza A and B. Don’t be complacent just because no cases have been reported in India yet. Viruses travel fast with growing air travel. And we’ve had our share of mystery fevers that killed people in West Bengal and UP in recent years. So be on guard, and alert any symptom to a specialist.
