JEDDAH, 20 April 2003 — The Ministry of Health has dismissed media reports announcing Saudi Arabia’s first suspected case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), saying that the case in question is “not of the infective disease” taking a huge toll elsewhere in the world.
A Filipino, who was on Friday suspected of contracting the atypical pneumonia, was cleared of any suspicion of SARS infection yesterday. The man, who arrived at Jeddah’s King Abdul Aziz international airport on a Singapore Airlines flight, was taken for tests at the airport’s health care facilities after he was seen coughing.
The results of the initial assessment at the MOH indicated nothing out of the ordinary, but the man was kept under observation in an isolation area.
“Tests showed that his temperature was normal and that he only had some infection in the upper respiratory system,” said Khaled Al-Merghalani, public relations chief at the Ministry of Health.
“There was no further need to keep the man under observation, so he was discharged from hospital on Saturday. He has been completely cleared of any suspicion of being infected with SARS.”
Saudi Arabian Airlines has indefinitely suspended flights to Singapore over fears of the spread of SARS.
The Kingdom’s national carrier has advised travel agents that airlines operating to the Kingdom should not carry passengers traveling from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam and 15 other countries that have been affected by SARS.
