Eshin Direct

Okay, I think some of you might be interested in an explanation of what is happening in Hong Kong with this SARS thing. Hopefully, it will help to give you a Hong Kong resident’s view on what the global media has whipped up into panic. I’ll do this in English, any problems with understanding, let me know…I don’t want to contribute to the paranoia.

Let’s get one thing out of the way first. SARS has the potential to kill. I’m not going to lessen the seriousness of the disease by denying that. But what the media has not done is made the distinction between life-threatening (“Hey, it could kill you.”) and terminal (“You are definitely going to die.”). SARS is not terminal. If you get it, you are not necessarily going to die. The mortality rate is 4% (figures correct at time of writing). The media has failed to report that people are getting better and recovering from SARS – I guess that “Another victim dies because of SARS” makes a great headline…whereas “Man recovers…” doesn’t.

This leads me to statistics. Firstly, one should note that the outbreak of 2000 cases globally is relatively small when you compare it to many of the killer diseases of the last century. And today, we have increased airtravel to help spread the disease. So, surprisingly, we are doing quite well. And just under 100 deaths, that’s a good rate. (yes, people are dying and I should have more respect). Secondly, a so-called high risk category would be airtravellers and logically speaking air-crew would be adversely affected. Why have cabin crew not featured more prominently amongst the list of casualties?

One of the reasons is that they believe that SARS is transmitted through prolonged and intimate contact with an infected person. This is one of the reasons why there is panic. People don’t have any real idea of how it is transmitted and hence the mass panic around the world. They feared that the virus had become airborne but they do not know. You may have all heard of the case of Amoy Gardens where they reported a high number of cases. This fed the fear that it was airborne but now they believe it was contaminated water or something else. However, I doubt it is airborne. But that is apparently what the majority of HK believes by wearing these stupid face masks (which I am doing, and no, I don’t think I’ll post a photo!).

One of the things I should point out to people, which you wouldn’t understand unless you have been to Hong Kong. Not all the buildings here are the cleanest and the living environments aren’t the best sometimes. While some of you might have memories of Futura appartments in Singapore…the majority of Hong Kong does not enjoy such modern facilities. General hygiene is often quite poor in some areas. However, I live on HK Island and in a good area. The building has undertaken, as have many other buildings, to regularly clean and disinfect areas where the public has contact. The office, like so many others, have introduced new sanitation measures to ensure the safety of their workers. One positive about this outbreak is that HK is finally getting the clean-up it deserves.

So, to sum it all up. Please do not panic. The media has made this into a big circus. Initially, they thought it was a new deadly strain of the flu virus. They use words like “highly infectious” when they cannot validate this claim. They use impressive sounding words like “pandemic” or “epidemic” or “mass quarantine” to add flavour rather than report the statistics and the truth. It is serious but it is combatted by common hygiene and common sense.