We are assured that it is not -- judge for yourself:
'Relapse' patients had other problems: HK
HONGKONG -- A dozen former Sars patients here who were initially thought to have suffered relapses actually had other medical problems, health officials said.
The Hongkong Hospital Authority caused international alarm last Wednesday when it said that 12 patients who seemed to have recovered from Sars had been readmitted to hospitals after apparently relapsing.
But Dr Liu Shao Haei, a senior manager of the authority, said on Sunday that while some of the patients had developed fevers or other symptoms of illness after their initial discharge from a hospital, not one turned out to be sick again with Sars.
Eight of them had since been discharged for a second time.
'One was discharged, but was then readmitted with discomfort but it wasn't a relapse... It could just have been one of the stages of the illness and the patient returned for further observation,' explained Dr Liu.
'Another patient presented some generalised discomfort...but the investigations' results came back negative and she was discharged,' he said.
In one case, a woman had developed leg swelling from deep-vein thrombosis apparently caused by her prolonged bed rest during her treatment for Sars, Dr Liu said.
'There are, of course, cases where they develop fever and they reported the symptoms to the clinical teams during their home stay, and the clinical teams to be cautious asked them to come back for further investigations.
'The chest X-ray and blood tests were clear and they have been discharged,' he added.
'They are all confirmed as not related to any relapse of Sars conditions.'
Mr Dick Thompson, a spokesman for the World Health Organisation (WHO), welcomed the re-evaluation of the cases here that were initially diagnosed as relapses.
'It sounds like there's lots of good news,' he said.
The WHO was scheduled to hold an international video conference yesterday to examine if the 12 Sars patients in Hongkong might have suffered relapses after they appeared to recover.
Dr David Heymann, head of the communicable diseases section at WHO, had noted that the reported relapses might be due to steroid therapy used in Hongkong which was tapered off too rapidly, 'but we're not yet certain'.
Hongkong said yesterday it had reached a crucial stage in the fight against Sars after reporting just eight new cases, keeping figures in single digits for a second day, and said it would talk to the WHO about lifting a travel advisory.
Three more Sars patients died in the territory, bringing Hongkong's toll to 187, and Health Director Margaret Chan said it was too soon to claim victory.
She urged the public to maintain good personal and environmental hygiene.
'This is perhaps the most critical period, and if we relax on these measures all the hard work we'd put in place in the previous two months might go waste,' she told a news conference.
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