Hospital braces for more SARS patients
Moch. N. Kurniawan and Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
As the number of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) cases rises, the government is trying everything it can to help contain the disease that has killed at least 100 people worldwide.
Tuti Murtono, Medical Head of the SARS team at state-owned Sulianti Saroso Infectious Disease Hospital in North Jakarta, said on Monday that the number of rooms allocated for suspected SARS patients would be doubled to 14.
"We anticipate an increase in suspected SARS patients. We'll decide to increase (the number of) isolation rooms from seven to 14 rooms soon," Tuti said at a press conference.
Should the number of suspected SARS patients increase further, the hospital would place two patients in each isolation room, Tuti said.
Sulianti Saroso Hospital is currently treating four suspected SARS patients, but the total number of suspected SARS cases across the country has jumped by 33 percent, from nine cases on Sunday to 12 on Monday, including six people who have been cured of the disease and one who has died.
Tuti said she was confident that the hospital could treat suspected SARS patients with specific procedures.
The Jakarta Post witnessed that every medical staff treating suspected SARS patients had been instructed to don special masks, clothing, caps and gloves prior to conducting medical check-ups for suspected SARS patients.
An isolation room patient is treated by two medical workers, while other patients on the ward is attended to by one medical worker, Tuti explained.
She added that when a suspected SARS patient arrived at the hospital, the individual was asked whether they had difficulty in breathing, if they were coughing, and to which country they had been most recently.
Their temperature was then measured, blood tests taken and their chests x-rayed, she said.
"Anyone who has a temperature of over 38 Celsius, has difficulty breathing, is coughing and has recently returned from SARS-infected countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, China or Vietnam will be admitted to an isolation room," she said.
A suspected SARS patient was connected to a device to aid their respiration and was provided vitamins and supplements through an intravenous drip to help them fight the SARS virus, a kind of corona virus, Tuti added.
Even so, lax preventive measures were evident at the hospital.
Tuti said the hospital had sent the samples from two suspected SARS patients to the Atlanta Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the U.S. for testing, contradicting the government's claim that it had sent all suspected SARS patient samples to the CDC.
"We only sent the two most probable SARS cases to CDC (not all)," she said.
Only health officials treating suspected SARS patients were obligated to wear masks.
Asked why not all medical workers in the main SARS clinic were ordered to wear masks, Tuti admitted that the hospital had a limited stock of the special masks.
"We're still waiting for a supply to come in from the Ministry of Health and other sources. Once the masks arrive, we will distribute it to all hospital staffs and make it compulsory to wear them," she said.
Separately, five-star hotels in Jakarta, whose guests are mostly international visitors, were also aware of the threat of SARS.
"We are undertaking pro-active procedures, like announcing the latest information on the disease to our associates," Eldridge J. MacEwan III, general manager of the Sari Pan Pacific Hotel on Jl. M.H. Thamrin, Central Jakarta, told the Post.
"An in-house clinic is also available with three doctors and three nurses. They have received a special briefing on SARS," said MacEwan, who manages 450 hotel staff.
The Gran Melia Hotel, meanwhile, is considering masks for its staff.