James Meikle, health correspondent 

Mystery bug strikes Briton

Health officials have advised Britons who fall ill with a fever, cough or breathing difficulties after visits to China, Hong Kong and south-east Asia to seek medical advice after they identified the first suspected victim of a worldwide mystery illness.
  
  


Health officials have advised Britons who fall ill with a fever, cough or breathing difficulties after visits to China, Hong Kong and south-east Asia to seek medical advice after they identified the first suspected victim of a worldwide mystery illness.

A man who returned by air from Hong Kong at the weekend was last night being treated at a special unit at North Manchester general hospital as airline KLM advised fellow travellers who had been seated near him to contact their doctors.

Nine people are believed to have died and more than 170 others, many of them health workers, have fallen ill worldwide with severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars). The World Health Organisation, which has warned air crews and travellers to be vigilant, said there was "no current justification" for any restraint on travel or trade.

Manchester doctors were still trying to assess the condition of the British patient last night as the WHO redoubled efforts to identify the disease so it could recommend treatments for the condition which exhibits pneumonia-like symptoms.

The patient is believed to have visited the accident and emergency department of a local hospital after feeling unwell. Staff recognised he might be suffering from Sars as a result of alerts to doctors and referred him to the special infectious disease unit at North Manchester general hospital.

Stephen Farey, divisional director of medicine there, said: "The patient is stable and is being nursed in an isolation cubicle. Various tests have been carried out and the results are awaited. He is being treated with intravenous antibiotics and is receiving oxygen."

KLM said it was contacting passengers who had sat in the same row or those immediately in front and behind the man on flight KL 0888, a 747 from Hong Kong, and KL 2037, a Fokker 100 from Amsterdam.

The Department of Health also said other passengers on the flights who developed symptoms should contact doctors and tell them their travel history. The evidence so far suggested that the infection was mainly passed from close contacts such as family members or health workers.

Liam Donaldson, chief medical officer for England, told the BBC: "We are watching the outbreak extremely closely." The case was being treated as having a possible link to the outbreak in the far east.

Lorraine Lighton, coordinator of the Greater Manchester health protection unit, said: "Although there have been only a handful of cases outside the far east, we are taking the situation very seriously. Anyone who has recently travelled to Hong Kong or Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, or Indonesia, who becomes ill with a fever and a cough or difficulty breathing, should seek medical advice."

The only specific health advice given so far by the government to travellers planning to visit areas affected comes from the Foreign Office. It applies to Guangdong in southern China where what may be the same, or a related, disease began in November and peaked last month.

This says that young and elderly people are particularly at risk and advises people to avoid crowded places with poor ventilation.

In Hong Kong, where nearly 100 cases have been reported, there have been huge sales of surgical masks. Special WHO teams are assisting authorities there and in Hanoi where most cases of the disease are concentrated.

In Guangdong, 305 people fell ill and five died. The disease has also struck in Canada and elsewhere in Europe, demonstrating the ease with which such infections can spread via air travel.

 

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