Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Papers

Graphic Outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region: case report

BMJ 2003; 326 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.326.7394.850 (Published 19 April 2003) Cite this as: BMJ 2003;326:850

Rapid Response:

Convalescence & discharge management of Hospital Authorityy in Hong Kong.

I would like to echo Dr.Teik E Tan's opinion that the documented
management guideline of Hospital Authoriy (HA) make us feel
uneasy.
The convalescent SARS patient is cohorted for up to 3 weeks
from onset of illness, or at least 7 days since convalescence,
whichever is longer. Then he will be self-quarantine at home for
10 days. And he will return to work if there is no deterioration
of condition.
From some published paper of Human respiratory syncytial virus
(HRSV), the patient may be contagious for at least 3 weeks after
signs and symptoms subsided. Some microbiologists in Hong
Kong even reported that the excreta, oral and nasal secretions
from recovered patient can be contagious for half an year.
Since, the acumulative number of discharge patients is 233 on
18 Apr., 2003. Some of them are already or pending to return
working soon according to the reent HA guideline. It may be
possible that those patients may bring along the contagious viruses
back to work and aggravate the virus spreading into the Hong
Kong community.

Competing interests:  
None declared

Competing interests: No competing interests

19 April 2003
Edward Lai
Physiotherapist
North District Hospital, Hong Kong