Posted on 05/21/2003 10:59:48 AM PDT by riri
Being fever-free for more than 72 hours or 3 days is what doctors may now have to look out for in their patients.
Parkway Shenton that manages the clinic which treated the latest SARS case, says this experience shows that more symptons have to be looked at when sifting out SARS cases.
Between 5 May to 11 May, the latest SARS patient Lee Chong Kian saw the doctor at this clinic opposite Bukit Gombak MRT Station five times.
From his first visit to his third visit, his temperature was going down and he was responding to antibiotics.
But the 39-year-old started having diarrhoea and soon a rash developed along with a fever which returned 4 days later.
Executive Director of Parkway Shenton, Dr Goh Jin Hian said: "The symptoms can be so varied. It can be a rash, it can be diarrhoea, it can be body aches. As doctors we will err on the side of caution, give the patient medical leave first and to continue to measure the temperature and to make sure the patient is not having a fever for more than 72 hours before saying that the patient is certainly recovered."
The clinic, closed for a day of cleaning and disinfection, reopened on Tuesday morning with about 6 patients seeking medical attention when our news team was there.
Those in the neighbourhood were not alarmed that this clinic had recently treated a SARS patient.
"I saw in the news that there's some kind of disinfection yesterday so I think there's no worry at all," said one patient.
"It has been nearly 10 days since the patient was admitted and they also came to disinfect," said another.
Staff who attended to the SARS patient are on a 10-day voluntary quarantine till Wednesday.
A new team of doctors and staff are overseeing operations.
And they used to call pneumonia "the old man's friend."
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