Sars suspect kept in strict isolation

By ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE

Doctors and nurses don head-to-toe disposable clothing when they enter the isolation room in Hastings that is home to the woman suspected of having Sars.

After every visit to the room, the paper suits, gowns, gloves, shoes, hats and masks are all burned.

The patient lies in one of the hospital's four negative-pressure isolation rooms. When the door opens, outside air is sucked in; none escapes. The air inside the room is changed 10 to 12 times an hour, filtered and vented outdoors.

The woman was admitted last Tuesday with suspected severe acute respiratory syndrome, which has killed more than 290 people worldwide, three days after returning from a tour of China.

Six days later, health authorities have still not been able to confirm whether she has the deadly virus.

Hospital spokeswoman Karalyn van Deursen said the woman was "on the mend", but no label could yet be put on her illness.

"Until we can rule out everything, there is still a high suspicion of Sars," Ms van Deursen said yesterday.

A range of tests had included screening for legionnaires disease, which exhibited similar symptoms but took at least two weeks to confirm.

The woman and her family had asked for anonymity.

"The highest level of infection control is being used," Ms van Deursen said.

Once discharged, the woman was likely to face 10 days' isolation at home and her family would be advised the precautions they should take.

Thousands of kilometres from Hastings, a former Tauranga man, David Riddington, who has been confirmed with Sars, remains in isolation in hospital in Xi'an, China.

The avid traveller was keen to enjoy a cruise of the Yangtze River before it is tamed by a 620km dam harnessed to the world's largest hydroelectricity scheme.

The day before the 39-year-old was due to leave China for the Caribbean, he was stopped from boarding a flight to Beijing and quarantined at Jiado Hospital in Xi'an.

His fever, cough and sore throat were characteristic Sars symptoms and he learned three or four days later that he had the potentially life-threatening virus.

After a week of isolation, watching Discovery Channel and Chinese-language TV, Mr Riddington was last night itching to return home to the Channel Islands.

The Jersey-based horticulturist, who left New Zealand 15 years ago, is feeling much better and hopes his enforced isolation will end this week.

"But I do not want to get my hopes up," he added.

He said he was in good hands and was on an intravenous drip.

One of a family of five boys and a girl, Mr Riddington said he would probably stay with his sister in the south of England before returning to his parks and reserves job in Jersey.

He told the Herald he first thought he had caught a nasty cold on the river cruise.

"I am very good at catching colds, so I wasn't surprised."

But it did not clear up and he was hospitalised after Xi'an airport staff became concerned about his symptoms.

"It changed every hour. When I coughed I had a splitting headache. But it seems pretty tame considering it could possibly be a fatal," Mr Riddington said.

"I never at any point thought I was going to die. I think I had a mild case of it. I feel lucky."

- additional reporting: Mathew Dearnaley