Malaysian Health Service: Russian delegation is not infected with SARS

The whole high-ranking Russian delegation headed by Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov is now absolutely sure in the absence of atypical pneumonia virus /SARS/ among the delegates, the Malaysian Health Service disclosed.

Malaysia, surrounded with the countries, where SARS have already wasted hundreds of lives, introduced a strict sanitary control at its borders after the first case of death from SARS. Head of the Malaysian Health Service Chua Jui Meng ordered to measure temperature by a special non-contact thermometer of all visitors arriving to Malaysia by sea, air or land, the Health Service reported. This order applies to everyone - from suitcase-traders to ministers and presidents.

Therefore, on their arrival in Malaysia, the whole Russian defence delegation was immediately taken through a special frame, where a doctor masked and dressed in a special costume inspected each delegate. The doctor appeared to be satisfied with the inspection results, since the whole delegation proceeded after a while to the cars waiting for them.

However, the other delegation of the Russian military-industrial complex, which also arrived to participate in the talks on military-technical co-operation, was less fortunate. The sensitive thermometer registered that one of the delegates had a slight deviation of her body temperature and she was immediately taken to the other room for a more detailed medical inspection. Fortunately, none of the other SARS symptoms were detected and she was permitted to enter the country.

According to Malaysian doctors, due to the introduced strict medical regime, Malaysia managed to exclude itself from the so-called epidemic belt. Since SARS started to rage through the region, Malaysia registered two cases of death as a result of the virus and has put 12 people with symptoms of atypical pneumonia in quarantine.