Passengers on two China Airlines (CAL) flights that carried aircrew suspected of being infected with severe acute respiratory syndromes (SARS) have the right to seek compensation from the airline if they contracted the disease, the Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday.
The department issued a warning to CAL yesterday after the airline brought back two flight attendants, a man and a woman, suspected of being infected by the disease.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has listed the two flight attendants as "probable" SARS cases and the DOH has designated eight flights that they served on as "dangerous flights." Passengers on these flights should be especially alert to any symptoms of SARS.
Of the 147 reported cases of SARS in the country, 23 have been listed as "probable," 37 as "suspect," 72 turned out not to be SARS and another 15 have yet to be determined. As the virus that causes SARS has not yet been identified, the most confident diagnoses of SARS are listed as "probable" cases.
Lee Lung-teng (李龍騰), DOH deputy director-general, said that while passengers could seek compensation from the airline if they discovered that they had been infected by the flight attendants, cases would have to be decided by the courts and would have nothing to do with the DOH.
Lee also called for people who have traveled to countries where SARS has been transmitted locally not to donate blood.
CAL is under investigation over whether it violated the Communicable Disease Prevention Law (
Roger Han (韓粱中), spokesman for CAL, said the airline decided to bring the stewardess back to Taipei because a Japanese doctor diagnosed her as not having SARS.
Han said that the DOH's warning was "completely unacceptable."
The male flight attendant is thought to have caught the disease on a flight from Thailand on April 2.
A teacher and 43 students at an institute where he was studying have been required to remain quarantined at home.
The Mei Ho Institute of Technology said it would suspend classes for 10 days after Pingtung County's health department ordered the staff and students to stay home.
The institute is the first school to suspend classes because of the SARS outbreak.
The classroom where the flight attendant took classes has been disinfected and sealed.
DOH Director-General Twu Shiing-jer (
According to Han, Twu, after visiting the flight crew division, said that the airline had acted according to regulations in allowing the stewardess to take the flight to Taipei.
Nevertheless, Twu also said the airline "could have done better" in handling of the two suspect SARS cases, according to the airline.
Han dismissed a rumor that the airline has demanded its crew not wear face masks in an attempt to make its crew look fit and to avoid alarming passengers.
"This rumor is a big mistake," said Han, who said that CAL had imposed preventive measures against SARS in accordance with the DOH's instructions.
"Twu explained that the purpose of the warning was to encourage CAL to be more vigilant," Han said.
The airline has started checking the temperature of passengers at its check-in counters in Hong Kong, Vietnam and Singapore.
Meanwhile, EVA Air demanded all crew and passengers traveling between Taiwan and Hong Kong or Macau to wear face masks from yesterday.
Both airlines have reportedly stopped offering hot meals on flights to and from Hong Kong to help stop the spread of SARS.
Passengers had stopped eating the meals because they did not want to take off their masks during flights.
Instead, airlines are offering cold meals that passengers can take with them when they get off the plane.
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