UK firm wins Sars contract

Healthcare bosses say the hospitals are not infected

Workers from a Hampshire firm are to be sent out to Singapore to protect hospitals against the Sars virus.

Bioquell has won a contract with Asia's largest private healthcare firm to "bio-decontaminate" two of its hospitals.

With 27 dead, Singapore has the third-highest Sars death toll.

But bosses at the Andover company say their employees will be working in Sars-free hospitals and that they will take "preventative measures".

The contract, thought to be worth up to £250,000, will see the workers use a special sterilisation system in the Gleneagles and Mount Elizabeth hospitals.

Protective clothing

A company spokeswoman told BBC News Online: "For the two hospitals covered in the contract they are sending out three people.

"They have to send their own people because there is a lot of software and technology involved in the system.

"The two hospitals they are going to be working in will be Sars-free.

"They would not be in contact with anybody with Sars. They will just be in an empty room so the risks will be relatively low."

She added they would be liaising closely with the authorities over the day-to-day risks.

The workers will be wearing protective clothing during the job and, if further contracts are won, will only be sent into contaminated hospitals after necessary precautions are taken.

The sterilisation system, which weighs just 25kg, kills bacteria and viruses in hospital wards by spraying hydrogen peroxide vapour which is then catalytically converted into water and oxygen.

Health officials in Singapore said on Wednesday that they needed 10 more days to declare the epidemic under control

Parkway's managing director, Dr Lim Cheok Peng, said: "Parkway's hospitals are Sars-free.

"However, putting in place this technology ensures that a proactive, preventative and robust approach is taken to infection control in all our hospitals."