Even as the panic button on an SARS scare was pressed in Madhya Pradesh by a couple of doctors, the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), New Delhi, nullified all claims and reiterated that nine people who had earlier died in the state during January to March were not suffering from SARS.

The high drama stared when a local media broke the allegedly fabricated story of a 20-year-old patient from Rajgarh admitted in a Bhopal based nursing home. The treating doctors openly claimed that the symptoms of the pneumonia diagnosed in the patient were similar to that of SARS.

They also claimed that nine persons had died in the last three months due to atypical pneumonia with symptoms resembling to SARS.

The Madhya Pradesh government swung into action and a high alert was sounded in all the districts across the state. Special teams were requested from the Centre to confirm the diagnosis of the doctors.

As panic gripped the State, the patient underwent a battery of tests to confirm whether it was really the deadly Asian pneumonia virus. While the special diagnostic kits ordered by the Centre from Germany were also requested to confirm the tests here.

A five-member team comprising Health Services Joint Director Dr KK Khare, JP Hospital Civil Surgeon Dr Deepak Verma, Gandhi Medical College Professor (Medicine) V K Sharma, Senior Physician Dr Gopal Batni and Sub-Divisional magistrate Arvind Dubey, was formed to screen the claims.

According to State Health Services Director Dr Ashok Sharma, to confirm the claims that the patient was suffering from SARS, the patient must be suffering from fever above 100.5 degree centigrade, must have one or more clinical findings of respiratory illness and must have traveled within ten days of onset of symptoms to an area documented with suspected community transmission of SARS.

Thwarting the claims of Bhopal-based doctors, NICD Director Shiv Lal said that on-the-spot study carried out by a two-member NICD team has revealed different causes were responsible for the diseases which led to the death of the nine patients.

He assured that the youth admitted to a local nursing home in Bhopal, with symptoms similar to SARS, was not suffering from the dreaded disease.

Meanwhile, figures released by World Health Organisation (WHO) suggest that no SARS cases have been found in India as yet. The SARS pneumonia has claimed 84 lives and has infected 2353 persons so far from 19 countries. The additional fresh cases were reported from Brazil. China accounted for the maximum number of 1220 patients and reported 49 deaths, said the report.

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Sushma Swaraj, who was in Indore to attend the BJP National Executive Meet, confirmed the report and said that no case of SARS were reported in the country as yet. However, the doctors have been instructed to perform necessary tests to rule out the patients having contracted the disease across the country.