RIYADH, 15 April 2003 — Twenty-four IT companies from Taiwan scheduled to participate in the GITEX Saudi Arabia 2003 from April 27 to May 1 have withdrawn from the event in the wake of growing concerns over the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
However, a spokesman for the Riyadh Exhibition Company, the organizer of the event, told Arab News that but for the withdrawal of the Taiwanese exhibitors, the GITEX show would go ahead as planned, with around 600 companies from the Kingdom and abroad confirming their participation.
Meanwhile, the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center has drawn up contingency plans for dealing with SARS, although no case has yet come to light.
The contingency plan should be seen against the background of the reported discovery of a new strain of the SARS virus named Corona, said Dr. Abdullah Al-Hogail, consultant and head of infectious diseases at KFSH.
He said the infection could be controlled through the administration of Ribavirin, available locally either in tablet or injection form. Steroids could also be used in severe cases to reduce the inflammatory reaction.
Dr. Al-Hogail said two negative pressure rooms had been allocated at the hospital. He said KFSH was one of the few hospitals in the Kingdom equipped with such facilities.
Although no SARS case has been reported in the Kingdom, the hospital’s advisory alerts vulnerable groups to watch out for the symptoms, which include high fever, shortness of breath and other symptoms resembling flu and pneumonia.
Vulnerable groups includes the elderly, patients suffering from cardio-vascular and liver diseases and those who have had either organ transplant or are undergoing immune suppression therapy in connection with organ transplants, whose poor immune system puts them at the risk of contracting SARS infection.
Dr. Al-Hogail suggested the distribution of a questionnaire among air travelers to ask if they had been to any of the countries affected by the virus during the last two months or so.
