OTGV #27 - SARS Summary
Broadcast Date: 31/03/03
New disease, new challenges and the government took drastic steps last week to tackle them.
"I have invoked the Infectious Diseases Act and we will be serving notice on all these people and so this will prevent them from interacting with the rest of community and presenting a risk to them."
"Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health have decided to close all primary schools, secondary schools, junior colleges and centralised institutes to Sunday, 6th of April."
Hi Welcome to On the Grapevine with me Chong Ching Liang as I take a look back on a furious week of activities to combat the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS.
The government actions to impose home quarantine and temporary closure of the national schools up to JC level stem from an effort to try and calm frayed public nerves.
Education Minister Teo Chee Hean.
"The advice from the medical profession is that there is no reason to close the schools on purely medical ground. But there has been concerns express by parents and we received this feedback directly from parents directly and also from general practitioners. Basically this move is to reassure parents to give them peace of mind so that know their children are not put at risk."
Why is the public panicking?
First, SARS is a disease that humanity has never seen before.
The World Health Organisation's advisor to the Singapore government Dr Osman Mansoor explains.
"So we are still learning. WHO's role is to coordinate the activities that is going on in different countries and to learn, a lot to learn from Singapore. But WHO does not know what is the right thing to do to control this disease nor would anyone else know. I can tell what we do know; we do know that the transmission appears to be extremely limited. Nearly all the transmission has happen in hospitals when people have become very sick."
With a new disease, information about it is constantly evolving and the public is simply too impatient to wait.
So that's how rumours start.
There are already different versions of SARS-related e-mails that have been snaking into Singaporean computers.
One says SARS only affect the Chinese and another, more damagingly, accused the government of information blackout.
Elisabeth is a 4th or 5th generation recipient of the second type of chain mail.
"When I first read it, regarding a news media blackout, I was thinking to myself, ha ha. So now the truth comes out because last week, there was a speech from Lim Hng Kiang, he did mentioned that we have everything under control, no panic but now suddenly this week things seems to be moving in another direction."
But because it is on something as unknown as SARS, her first thought was to forward the letter on to people she cares about.
So these e-mails become a cyber-virus that's propagated the same way as an uncontrolled flu bug.
Dr Wong Sin Yew, an infectious disease physician in private practice feels the public needs to support the public sector healthcare professionals at this time, and he urges Singaporeans to be cautious when dealing with such alarmist e-mails.
"I have no doubt that everyone is trying to provide as much reaction as possible but I would like the readers and your listeners to concentrate on actually what are the facts. And the facts are MOH, WHO, and many other countries are collaborating to try and find out what the bug is. There are a lot of speculations and I think these speculations do a great disservice to public health policies makers who grapple with a rapidly evolving disease."
So has the government been withholding information?
Health Minister Lim Hng Kiang has been chairing media briefings and personally answering all questions every alternate day or so.
Transparency will help but battling the disease will take a lot of hard work and good solid detective work coupled with sound medical knowledge.
Mr Lim Hng Kiang on how Singapore and Hong Kong worked together to determine the course of infection for Singapore's first three patients.
"Well, we are in contact with the Hong Kong authorities and their hypothesis to us is that the 7 patients who're infected stay on the same floor and they hypothesised that they could have contracted from this Guangzhou doctor who's the source, either while waiting for the lift or inside the lift. Their hypothesis is close direct contact when they were waiting for the elevator or they were inside the elevator itself and the Guangzhou doctor may have sneezed or coughed and that could have pass the droplets to the others. And that's how the infection got started. That's their hypothesis and I don't think anybody can pin-point the cause but because the other hotel workers are not affected, they think that it's a plausible explanation."
But it seems the future is getting a tad brighter.
A team of micro-biologists from Hong Kong University claims the first step to stopping the SARS bug has been reached.
Dr Malik Perius.
"Growing, identifying the virus is very important; you can call it a breakthrough if you like. Of course we are not at the end of the road but I think we have taken a big step along that road. It also opens the door to testing what anti-viral drugs would be effective against this virus to the longer term, developing vaccines. It is a long way to go but I think this is an important first step."
In about a week's time, the schools will be re-opened.
Whether or not the public will accept this will depend on how aware they are of the SARS bug.
So Mr Lim Hng Kiang promised an information blitz before the reopening of schools to educate Singaporeans.
"I think we have to do quite a lot more in the following days to get the public educated, to understand the nature of SARS. We'll be taking out ads; we go and attend talk shows to get the message across in all the different ways."
It will be awhile before the public regains its composure but at least, we can rest assured that scientists worldwide are working hand-in-hand to wipe out the SARS bug.
This is Chong Ching Liang for NewsRadio 938.
==========================
Related Links:
Newsradio938 now 938Live
http://www.938live.sg/
Ministry of Health SARS website
http://www.moh.gov.sg/corp/sars/index.html
Hong Kong University SARS Fund website (with links and info)
http://www.hku.hk/sarsfund/
World Health Organisation SARS website
http://www.who.int/topics/sars/en/
New disease, new challenges and the government took drastic steps last week to tackle them.
"I have invoked the Infectious Diseases Act and we will be serving notice on all these people and so this will prevent them from interacting with the rest of community and presenting a risk to them."
"Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health have decided to close all primary schools, secondary schools, junior colleges and centralised institutes to Sunday, 6th of April."
Hi Welcome to On the Grapevine with me Chong Ching Liang as I take a look back on a furious week of activities to combat the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS.
The government actions to impose home quarantine and temporary closure of the national schools up to JC level stem from an effort to try and calm frayed public nerves.
Education Minister Teo Chee Hean.
"The advice from the medical profession is that there is no reason to close the schools on purely medical ground. But there has been concerns express by parents and we received this feedback directly from parents directly and also from general practitioners. Basically this move is to reassure parents to give them peace of mind so that know their children are not put at risk."
Why is the public panicking?
First, SARS is a disease that humanity has never seen before.
The World Health Organisation's advisor to the Singapore government Dr Osman Mansoor explains.
"So we are still learning. WHO's role is to coordinate the activities that is going on in different countries and to learn, a lot to learn from Singapore. But WHO does not know what is the right thing to do to control this disease nor would anyone else know. I can tell what we do know; we do know that the transmission appears to be extremely limited. Nearly all the transmission has happen in hospitals when people have become very sick."
With a new disease, information about it is constantly evolving and the public is simply too impatient to wait.
So that's how rumours start.
There are already different versions of SARS-related e-mails that have been snaking into Singaporean computers.
One says SARS only affect the Chinese and another, more damagingly, accused the government of information blackout.
Elisabeth is a 4th or 5th generation recipient of the second type of chain mail.
"When I first read it, regarding a news media blackout, I was thinking to myself, ha ha. So now the truth comes out because last week, there was a speech from Lim Hng Kiang, he did mentioned that we have everything under control, no panic but now suddenly this week things seems to be moving in another direction."
But because it is on something as unknown as SARS, her first thought was to forward the letter on to people she cares about.
So these e-mails become a cyber-virus that's propagated the same way as an uncontrolled flu bug.
Dr Wong Sin Yew, an infectious disease physician in private practice feels the public needs to support the public sector healthcare professionals at this time, and he urges Singaporeans to be cautious when dealing with such alarmist e-mails.
"I have no doubt that everyone is trying to provide as much reaction as possible but I would like the readers and your listeners to concentrate on actually what are the facts. And the facts are MOH, WHO, and many other countries are collaborating to try and find out what the bug is. There are a lot of speculations and I think these speculations do a great disservice to public health policies makers who grapple with a rapidly evolving disease."
So has the government been withholding information?
Health Minister Lim Hng Kiang has been chairing media briefings and personally answering all questions every alternate day or so.
Transparency will help but battling the disease will take a lot of hard work and good solid detective work coupled with sound medical knowledge.
Mr Lim Hng Kiang on how Singapore and Hong Kong worked together to determine the course of infection for Singapore's first three patients.
"Well, we are in contact with the Hong Kong authorities and their hypothesis to us is that the 7 patients who're infected stay on the same floor and they hypothesised that they could have contracted from this Guangzhou doctor who's the source, either while waiting for the lift or inside the lift. Their hypothesis is close direct contact when they were waiting for the elevator or they were inside the elevator itself and the Guangzhou doctor may have sneezed or coughed and that could have pass the droplets to the others. And that's how the infection got started. That's their hypothesis and I don't think anybody can pin-point the cause but because the other hotel workers are not affected, they think that it's a plausible explanation."
But it seems the future is getting a tad brighter.
A team of micro-biologists from Hong Kong University claims the first step to stopping the SARS bug has been reached.
Dr Malik Perius.
"Growing, identifying the virus is very important; you can call it a breakthrough if you like. Of course we are not at the end of the road but I think we have taken a big step along that road. It also opens the door to testing what anti-viral drugs would be effective against this virus to the longer term, developing vaccines. It is a long way to go but I think this is an important first step."
In about a week's time, the schools will be re-opened.
Whether or not the public will accept this will depend on how aware they are of the SARS bug.
So Mr Lim Hng Kiang promised an information blitz before the reopening of schools to educate Singaporeans.
"I think we have to do quite a lot more in the following days to get the public educated, to understand the nature of SARS. We'll be taking out ads; we go and attend talk shows to get the message across in all the different ways."
It will be awhile before the public regains its composure but at least, we can rest assured that scientists worldwide are working hand-in-hand to wipe out the SARS bug.
This is Chong Ching Liang for NewsRadio 938.
==========================
Related Links:
Newsradio938 now 938Live
http://www.938live.sg/
Ministry of Health SARS website
http://www.moh.gov.sg/corp/sars/index.html
Hong Kong University SARS Fund website (with links and info)
http://www.hku.hk/sarsfund/
World Health Organisation SARS website
http://www.who.int/topics/sars/en/
posted by CHONG Ching-liang | 11:05 AM
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