Multilingual signs about the threat of SARS are to be put up in Dublin airport following this week's scare over the virus involving a woman.
Dr Gerry Molloy, medical officer at Dublin airport, said today that notices and leaflets about SARS there were currently in English only, but the position would be put right "within days".
The woman at the centre of the SARS scare - who was found not to have Serious Acure Respiratory Syndome (SARS) last night after a series of medical tests - arrived in Dublin from the Far East last week, and later reported to a local hospital with potentialsymptoms of SARS.
She was then handed a surgical mask and told to return to the hostel where she was living - a development that has sparked criticism of the Irish health authorities from political and medical sources.
The woman was finally admitted to hospital early yesterday and was later declared free of the illness.
The Irish Government was also urged today to adopt a foot-and-mouth-styleapproach to the threat of SARS following the criticism of Dublin's official handling of the latest suspect case.
Leading microbiologist Dr Ed Smyth of the National Disease Survillance Centre also backed the provision of more public notices at airports to ensure people returning from areas where the disease was endemic knew the extent of themenace.
Yesterday, the Irish Minister for Health, Mr Micheal Martin, admitted contingency plans had not worked in the case of the woman, who comes from the region ofChina where SARS is believed to have originated.
The position in Dublin has been complicated by a coincidental strike over pay and conditions by doctors who would be involved in combating infectious diseases. Political leaders have said the action should be called off.
A number of doctors left picket lines to treat the woman involved in this week's scare.
Fine Gael has called on the Government to impose a temporary ban on people travelling to and from China until the SARS situation there becomes clearer.
PA