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Brunei's First Killer SARS Patient Under Watch In RIPAS Hospital
Bandar Seri Begawan - A 28-year-old woman has reportedly fallen ill in Brunei on Tuesday with suspected mystery killer disease Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). It is the first such case in the sultanate, according to reliable sources.

The woman, a Brunei Shell employee had returned from a trip to Hong Kong and Southern China on March 3 when she became ill soon after.
According to a reliable medical source she suffered since last Wednesday from headaches, fever and muscular pains, shortness of breath and cough.

She went to a doctor who gave her antibiotics to counter the symptoms of pneumonia.

But her discomfort persisted and the RIPAS hospital isolated her on Tuesday night in a ward specially prepared anticipating an outbreak.
The hospital authorities are working feverishly to study the case and devise possible treatment. A source described that the status of her illness based on the current symptoms as a "medium probability." More tests have to be conducted to confirm the virus disease.

The Brunei Health Ministry meanwhile has advised anyone who have travelled to the affected areas such as Hong Kong, China and Vietnam in the last two weeks and has developed a sudden onset of high fever, respiratory systems like cough, shortness of breath or difficulty in breathing to seek medical attention as soon as possible.

But sources said that there was no cause for alarm as this appeared a one off case. However they urged caution.

Health Ministry announced till Monday that Brunei had no clinical cases reported but will continue to monitor the development of the outbreak in line with guidelines in the control and prevention of communicable disease.

The Health Ministry yesterday stated that it will be keeping a close eye on the situation and has taken precautionary measures to avoid any possible outbreaks.
SARS is an infectious disease characterised by a typical pneumonia for which the cause has not yet been determined.
The disease is spread from person-to-person but only through close contact with a case.

There is no evidence to date that the disease spreads through casual contact.

The Health Ministry will continue to work with authorities to ensure that all who pass through points of entries in the sultanate are monitored.

Thanks, MA. I wish "casual contact" were more clearly defined, I don't quite believe that it isn't (or couldn't be) spread by whatever "casual contact" is.

And I don't trust the statistics on the spread, either...normal regular yearly influenza pneumonia will kill a certain number of debilitated people every year...and WHO issues NO alerts about that which reach media attention...

Bonesmccoy you make the point that we may not hear anything more about this, but today, I'm not so sure...