Our Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew has finally given a press conference on SARS. Yesterday, he revealed for the first time how his wife was actually in the same room with a SARS patient at the Singapore General Hospital ( of course, the patient wasn't known to have SARS at that time ). They were separated by only a thin curtain, and the radiographer who attended to the patient later came down with SARS. I couldn't help smiling when SM Lee recounted how he and his wife were both quarantined, and called the doctor in the middle of the night when one of their temperatures hit 37.8 degrees Celsius -- the lousy Thermoscan again! This definitely reinforces the fact that SARS can hit anyone, anywhere, anytime. Even our most high-ranking politicians aren't exempt. SM Lee's call for Singaporeans to rally round local healthcare workers is also greatly welcomed. We've been described as the country's "first-line defence", which must not be broken at any cost. Let's hope our fellow citizens will heed this call and stop acting like undisciplined children.


This week's Time (Asia) magazine has yet another series of terrific articles on the SARS epidemic. And after getting an unpleasant shock from their coverage of the China debacle, I had yet another major eyebrow-raising experience from Time's report of the Hong Kong mess. Here're a few samples.

" Hong Kong's response, by comparison, has been marked by what appear in hindsight to be tardy half-measures... But even after it became clear that a potentially deadly mystery illness was loose in the wards, visitors and outpatients came and went freely for several days, despite mounting evidence that the disease could be highly contagious. "

And regarding the Amoy Gardens outbreak, "authorities stopped short of immediately shutting potential victims in their homes, as Singapore had done. Instead, they were told to report daily to designated clinics for monitoring -- meaning suspected SARS carriers were actually being required to venture out among the masses.
Another glitch was timing. The quarantine measures did not go into effect until March 31, 3 days after they were announced. That lag proved crucial. In the interim, SARS cases at Amoy Gardens soared from 7 to 213, and before a lockdown could be implemented there, 113 families living in the complex packed their bags and fled. Instead of separating them from the rest of the city, health officials lost track of them. About half of the families who fled the complex had been located by the end of last week. But the Hong Kong Police Department is still tracking down the remaining 45 families. In some cases, they've yet to even learn the names of the missing residents."

Time described this as "slam(ming) the ring-fence gate after the killer has left the pen", stating that "the advance of the epidemic in Hong Kong stands in marked contrast to the situation in Singapore", which has clamed a "full-court press" on the virus. WHO scientist Dr. Osman David Mansoor says, "..there's no doubt the disease is being controlled here in Singapore."

Comforting news. And lately, politicians have encouraged Singaporeans to get out of the house and spend to help the already-miserable economy. Although I don't think that's an all-bad idea, I would advise people to wait a little longer, especially since the new punishment guidelines under the Infectious Diseases Act are just taking effect. Once I see clear results, I'll think about venturing out.

If you get your hands on the Time (Asia) issue I just mentioned, don't miss an excellent piece by Pete Davies, titled "The Cycle of Death" . In it, he discusses the origin of SARS, as well as its impact on human society. One of the more alarming statements include "The virus survives and thrives by constantly mutating -- so that just as our immune systems recognize and kill off one strain, a new one emerges against which our defences don't work." But the more depressing piece of news is how he writes that "We cannot be sure whether the next pandemic will be this bad, any more that we can be sure when it will come or where it will start. There is only one thing of which we can be certain: that it definitely will happen again. We can also be sure that, as so often before, it very likely may begin in southern China."

Before I end off for today, I want to salute yet another group of courageous doctors at Tan Tock Seng Hospital -- 3 of them recently recovered from SARS, and have volunteered to collect mucus samples from those still having the infection, for testing purposes. With still so little known about the possibility of mutation in the coronavirus, not to mention the number of strains that may actually exist at this point in time, and thus whether you have real immunity or not, these are huge acts of courage and selflessness that make us proud. Bravo!