DAMMAM, 30 April 2003 — Thorough checks of passengers arriving in the Eastern Province are being carried out to prevent the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) from entering the Kingdom.
The two main entry points — King Fahd International Airport and King Fahd Causeway — are manned by medical teams who check passengers arriving from Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Toronto (Canada).
The Directorate of Health Affairs in the Eastern Province has said there was no case of SARS in the region and that the ministry was monitoring the situation and is prepared for any eventuality.
There was also cooperation with the private health sector, he said, and private hospitals would immediately transfer suspected patients to Dammam Central Hospital for tests and quarantine.
Checks of all passengers arriving from SARS-affected countries are carried out at KFIA, even though there are no direct flights from most of these countries.
The health authorities are also carrying out strict checks at the King Fahd Causeway, despite the fact that passengers are already checked on entry into Bahrain. The Causeway presents a challenge as buses from Manama are full of passengers from different nationalities and arriving from different destinations.
“We are not taking any chances and are checking all passengers. There is a possibility of a passenger coming from a non-infected area but catching the virus at the airport or on the bus,” an official at the Causeway told Arab News.
However, medical experts say that the symptoms of the atypical pneumonia may not become immediately evident and that passengers who are feared to have come into contact with passengers from SARS-affected countries should be kept under observation for at least 10 days.
The Health Ministry has therefore made it mandatory to keep all new workers arriving in the Kingdom under observation for 10 days before being allowed to work.
Mutlaq Al-Otaibi, director general of customs at the Causeway, said that the authorities were taking all precautionary measures, and the officials conducting checks were provided with surgical masks and gloves.
He said that the Ministry of Health had set up an isolation room at the Causeway should any passenger with an infectious disease arrive at the bridge. These precautions have been in force for a long time, he pointed out.
While there is no SARS panic in the province, residents admit that they are concerned, with rumors not helping the cause of the ministry. The directorate has denied a recent report in an Arabic daily that a SARS suspect had been admitted to Dammam Central Hospital.
