A global alert issued yesterday by World Health Organisation (WHO) Director General Gro Harlem Brundtland on the latest form of viral pneumonia affecting several countries was unnecessary and premature, according to Dr S M Sapatnekar, the director of the renowned Haffkine Institute in Mumbai.

Quoting the WHO warning, which said that "this syndrome, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), is now a worldwide health threat," Dr Sapatnekar observed that there also looms the danger of panic brought about by a sense of helplessness. "It is therefore necessary keep the facts in perspective" he added.

In a news release issued in Mumbai, he pointed out that "No link has so far been made between these outbreaks of acute respiratory illness in Hanoi and Hong Kong and the outbreak of 'bird flu', A(H5N1) in Hong Kong SAR reported on 19 February".

Since last few years, the experts have been anxiously on the lookout for Influenza pandemic. It is a relief to learn that the germ is not the flu virus. The latest release by Reuters has quoted virologist John Tam at the Chinese University in Hong Kong, who says that the virus belongs to the paramyxoviridae family. Influenza virus is not a member of that family.

A doctor and a nurse have died in Vietnam and 60 people are fighting the disease in the capital Hanoi. Two people have died of the disease in Canada. In Hong Kong at least two people have died. About 123 people infected in Hong Kong. Out of these 111 are suffering severe pneumonia. Numbers of similar cases has been rising steadily in Singapore and Taiwan.

"Taken collectively these facts indicate that today the highest risk of the infection is for the hospital staff attending the patients, relatives of the patients, other patients and visitors in the hospital or clinic and fellow travelers of the patient in early phase of the disease," Dr Sapatnekar said.