The who and cdc have a clinical diagnostic protocol for those affected by sars. They have laid down clear-cut guidelines in order to prevent suspected patients from coming into contact with infected people.
A team of scientists in the department of microbiology, University of Hong Kong, was the first to succeed in culturing the viral agent that causes sars. Using a special cell line, the Hong Kong scientists isolated the virus from the lung tissue of a patient who developed pneumonia following contact with a professor from Guangdong. Both persons have ince died. The scientists have devised a basic test that relies on neutralising antibodies. This "hand-made" technique will now be developed into a more sophisticated diagnostic test.
India's Mumbai-based srl Ranbaxy Limited is checking for the presence of coronavirus with its influenza test panels. These can be used to identify Influenza a virus, Influenza b virus, parainfluenza virus, respiratory synctial virus (rsv) and enterovirus. According to the company, if the virus does not turn out to be any of these, the disease can be assumed to be sars. "This is a diagnosis by exclusion," says Shishir Malwankar of Ranbaxy.
On April 16, the Institute of Medical Research in Malaysia and Germany's Hamburg-based company Artus announced that they had developed the first and only commercially available diagnostic kit. Since April 12, Singapore has used a high-tech thermal-imaging thermometer at Changi airport. The device automatically checks the temperature of air travellers as they step off the plane. These sensors alert health authorities to quarantine and isolate an infected person.
But sars is slippery. Singapore's ring-fence approach -- cordoning off the infected-seems to have suffered a setback when another hospital in the city was declared to have a patient of sars. Hong Kong on the other hand has had a significant rise because it believed in voluntary measures (self-reporting) rather than the military-style quarantining in Singapore. Germany, too, was able to isolate the single victim that reached Frankfurt airport and is reportedly keeping a keen watch.
In India, the first confirmed case in Goa was found to be a passive carrier who had crossed the "window" period. "As per who norms, the patient was released but asked to take rest and remain indoors," said Suresh Amonkar, Goa's health minister. Till Down To Earth went to press, the Pune case was the only active and confirmed sars case. A neighbourhood in Mumbai has been reportedly cordoned off by the hapless state government.