SARS: When enough is never enough
Salma Khalik, The Straits Times, Asia News Network, Singapore
Singapore has been praised by the World Health Organization for having done more than any other country to limit the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.
But has it been enough? Can it ever do enough?
The case of Madam Jamaliah Mat Saad, a 44-year-old who was working at Prima Food at Keppel Road, and who died in the National University Hospital after catching the deadly virus unawares while on a social visit to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, is now a talking point among Singaporeans.
Some say that if she had known of her risk, she might not have taken a holiday to Sarawak. And if she had been treated as a SARS patient the moment she fell ill, she might not have died.
In efforts to keep the lid on the problem and to avoid panic,the authorities initially downplayed the situation.
On March 17, even as Madam Jamaliah was beginning to succumb to the virus in Sarawak, the Health Ministry declared that the situation was "contained".
Not knowing then that more than 20 people had already been diagnosed with the disease, people took the assurances of the medical authorities at face value, and went about their daily business. With more cases being diagnosed this week, we now know how wrong that was.
The situation illustrates the dilemma health authorities the world over face: How to avoid creating mass panic, while still dishing out relevant information that may help curb the spread of the disease.
In Malaysia, until Wednesday the authorities were still preferring to insist that the country was SARS-free, rather than to take control measures early.
Singapore's health ministry probably erred on the side of optimism in earlier weeks when it assumed the disease was not all that virulent and would fizzle out after a short while. The task facing it now is to ensure that the balance is readjusted.
Which, to be fair to the ministry, it has been doing: Health Minister Lim Hng Kiang has held press conferences every other day since March 22, the day after the two-week budget debate in Parliament ended. He has admitted there were things the ministry did not know. His priority: To contain the bug at whatever economic costs.
Even personal privacy took a back seat, when he named marketing director Chong Pei Ling, who returned on a flight from Beijing so ill that she went almost immediately into intensive care. The purpose was to alert and contact anyone who might have caught the virus from her.
Efforts were made, successfully, to trace the taxi driver who ferried her to hospital, and even now, efforts are still going on to trace all passengers on that flight.
The same should now be done for the flights Madam Jamaliah was on, from Singapore to Sarawak, and back again. The National University Hospital, or other hospitals for that matter, should not assume the disease has not invaded their corridors.
Singapore has done much, but in a battle against such a deadly foe like the SARS virus, enough can never be enough.