JEDDAH, 26 April 2003 — The director general of Erfan & Bagedo Hospital, Dr. Mohammed Erfan, has denied reports that a 13-year-old Saudi boy died of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) at the hospital.
The Saudi Press Agency quoted Erfan as saying that Mazen Madani Enebsi died as a result of an acute bacterial inflammation.
“The Saudi child died of acute bacterial inflammation and not of SARS,” Erfan said in a press statement.
He also said the report carried by Arab News yesterday was untrue.
Quoting Dr. Sayed Oraby, who works at Erfan Hospital, Arab News reported that Mazen died of pneumonia, which is a bacterial and not a viral, infection.
Erfan said Mazen was admitted to his hospital very late after he had undergone treatment at a number of other private clinics.
“The boy had severe bacterial infection and all the medical and clinical tests proved that it was a bacterial case, and not SARS,” the director said.
Meanwhile, Dr. Qassim Al-Qasabi, deputy health minister for executive affairs, said no SARS cases had been reported in the Kingdom as of yesterday.
He denied press reports of suspected SARS cases in the Kingdom, adding that the ministry was closely following the latest developments. The epidemic has so far killed 276 people worldwide.
In Geneva, the World Health Organization said it still believed SARS could be prevented from taking root as an endemic disease despite the continuing spread of the killer virus.
