SARS disease

The SARS disease that may become a worldwide epidemic highlights the dangers of global travel and the degradation of our environment, which is likely responsible for the increase in mutations of viruses and other pathogens.

The human cost of SARS is about 4 percent to 5 percent of sufferers and includes many of our medical and nursing colleagues, dying heroically to save others. Fortunately more than 95 percent of ill patients recover, showing that antibodies develop and patients become immune, giving hope for a quick detection test and a vaccine, perhaps within a year.

The economic cost is tremendous, cutting off tourism, investment and keeping professionals from coming to the region.

What can we as members of ASEAN do?

First, we should check the importation of infected cases, and this will be done at airports and seaports. There should be a compulsory declaration for all passengers about their exposure to and travel to high-risk countries such as Hong Kong and China, and their history of a respiratory illness or fever.

The temperature of passengers should be taken by an ear thermometer, which is fast and accurate, and if possible a chest X-ray certificate (not more than three days old) should be presented before departure and on arrival. A body thermal scan is now available in Singapore and is being tried out.

Second, each ASEAN country should have good hospital isolation facilities for all such suspected and proven cases.

Third, since we know the virus is killed by exposures to sunlight and fresh air, which we have lots of, we should encourage more outdoor activities and improve ventilation for all our offices and homes.

We should all practice greater social responsibility, by staying away from public functions if we are ill, by wearing masks if we have a cold, by washing our hands and clothes frequently and not being afraid to seek medical advice whenever needed. We must aim at zero transmission in ASEAN.

In Singapore we have largely adopted these measures and hope soon to contain this disease. I hope we in ASEAN can work together to combat this and other potential diseases to restore confidence in our countries.

DR. JAMES C.M. KHOO Neurological Surgery PTE LTD Singapore