Hospital braces for more SARS patients
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.