The 27-year-old doctoral student who tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Singapore last week was probably a one-off case, according to Singaporean officials, possibly caused by an accident in the disease-research lab where he worked. The World Health Organization (WHO) said the case was “not an international public-health concern.” But Singapore’s stock market dropped 2.6% in a day, temperature checks at various airports were revved up, and the region got an early warning that SARS could make a comeback.
Is Asia prepared for another epidemic? The news on some fronts is heartening. Airports have invested in health-screening devices, and hospitals in areas hit hard by the virus first time around have acquired quarantine facilities and equipment needed to protect hospital workers. For example, in Hong Kong, where hospitals were initially overwhelmed by last spring’s SARS outbreak, more than 500 isolation rooms capable of housing some 1,300 SARS patients will be completed by November. China’s Guangdong province, ground zero for the virus, is spending more than $180 million to rebuild the provincial Center for Disease Control and add isolation rooms to hospitals. Properly prepared health facilities are key in keeping a minor outbreak from becoming a big oneSARS spread most rapidly among medical workers. “Without the trauma in hospitals there would have been no major outbreak last time,” says Dr. Hitoshi Oshitani, the WHO regional adviser for communicable disease.
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