Education

Doctors advise students not to travel to Hongkong and Guangdong

Following a recent World Health Organisation report about the deadly Sars virus, students should not visit Hongkong or the Chinese province of Guangdong.

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As long as no cure is found for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars), prevention is the only way to try to stop the infectious lung disease from spreading worldwide. In Hongkong and Guangdong the number of victims is increasing dramatically, and for this reason the World Health Organisation advises against travelling to these regions.

It might well be that this travel advisory will be extended to places like Peking, Taiwan, Vietnam and Singapore, says TU Delft Dr. Wim van Donselaar. ,,And don’t forget that the risk is greater for a student on a traineeship than for a tourist staying for just a few days.”

TU Delft recently asked Dr. Van Donselaar a delicate question: How should the university deal with the health risks that new students from China possibly present? Van Donselaar: ,,The best thing is to have doctors in China examine these students two weeks before their departure to Delft. The doctor has to sign a statement that says the student is not a Sars patient.”

While some Dutch universities are taking drastic measures (Erasmus University and Wageningen University actually forbid their personnel from travelling to Southeast Asia), TU Delft is still formulating its policy.

Sars is a disease whose initial symptoms are fever and muscle soreness, which sometimes evolves into pneumonia. There%s a 4 percent chance that an Sars patient will die.

Following a recent World Health Organisation report about the deadly Sars virus, students should not visit Hongkong or the Chinese province of Guangdong.

As long as no cure is found for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars), prevention is the only way to try to stop the infectious lung disease from spreading worldwide. In Hongkong and Guangdong the number of victims is increasing dramatically, and for this reason the World Health Organisation advises against travelling to these regions.

It might well be that this travel advisory will be extended to places like Peking, Taiwan, Vietnam and Singapore, says TU Delft Dr. Wim van Donselaar. ,,And don’t forget that the risk is greater for a student on a traineeship than for a tourist staying for just a few days.”

TU Delft recently asked Dr. Van Donselaar a delicate question: How should the university deal with the health risks that new students from China possibly present? Van Donselaar: ,,The best thing is to have doctors in China examine these students two weeks before their departure to Delft. The doctor has to sign a statement that says the student is not a Sars patient.”

While some Dutch universities are taking drastic measures (Erasmus University and Wageningen University actually forbid their personnel from travelling to Southeast Asia), TU Delft is still formulating its policy.

Sars is a disease whose initial symptoms are fever and muscle soreness, which sometimes evolves into pneumonia. There%s a 4 percent chance that an Sars patient will die.

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