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Indian Pilots Suspended for Refusing to Fly to SARS-Affected Areas
T.C. Malhotra
Correspondent
So far, India has reported just seven confirmed and 20 suspected cases of SARS, and the government is taking active measures to prevent the further spread of a bug that has killed more than 300 people worldwide and has no known cure.
Twenty-seven pilots working for national carrier Air India have been suspended for refusing to fly to the worst-hit areas - China, Hong Kong and Singapore - and on Monday threatened legal action against the airline.
The strike has affected many domestic and international flights - even to unaffected areas like the Middle East and East Africa - and Air India has had to cancel a number of flights.
Problems began when the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG), a body representing pilots, instructed its more than 200 members to refuse to fly planes unless airline managers certified that the cabin crew onboard had not been to SARS-affected sectors within the past 10 days.
Some pilots subsequently refused to operate flights or walked off flights at various destinations, prompting Air India to suspend a total of 27, as of Monday.
The government has also threatened action against the striking pilots, whom airline spokesman Jitendra Bhargava accused of using SARS as an excuse for striking about other grievances, including demands for an increase in flying allowances.
Since emerging in southern China this past November, the SARS outbreak has spread to almost 30 countries but has so far not affected South Asia badly.
Health officials fear that if it does take hold in the crowded cities of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the impact could be devastating.
Indian Health Minister Sushma Swaraj has ordered the staff of all international airports to wear masks, and incoming passengers from places like mainland China and Hong Kong are being screened.
A special team of doctors trained in contagious diseases, paramedics and fumigators are keeping an eye on passengers arriving at international airport terminals.
Incoming passengers are quizzed about their movements and health symptoms, with special attention paid to those experienced by sufferers of the virus - coughs, high temperature and difficulty in breathing.
Even Defense Minister George Fernandes and members of his entourage were screened at Indira Gandhi International Airport when they arrived home Sunday after a weeklong visit to China.
Fernandes told reporters later he had also been checked for SARS before flying out of Shanghai.
The government has set up a joint action group comprising federal and state officials to coordinate a response to SARS and keep track of infections across the country.
Also, 10 beds in every teaching hospital in every large Indian city have been reserved for potential SARS patients.
Medical experts here expect that SARS may spread in India but are urging people to remain calm.
"We cannot avoid spreading SARS," said the former director of the National Institute of
Communicable Diseases, Dr. K. K. Datta, adding that it was his view there was no such thing as an affected or unaffected country.
"It's just that some have reported, and some have not."
Datta predicted the SARS mortality rate would drop in time. Currently, about six percent of infected people are dying.
He advised Indians not to panic.
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