Singapore Quarantines 740 Residents Exposed To SARS
Science Writer Urges Americans Not To Panic
Updated: 3:56 p.m. EST March 24, 2003
Singapore is trying to contain a mysterious flulike illness by telling people who may have been exposed to the disease to stay home.
Overview
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How SARS WorksSingapore officials are ordering these people to stay home for 10 days. Under Singapore law, quarantined people who are caught outside their homes can be fined up to $10,000.
The World Health Organization reports that the disease has made 456 people around the world ill and killed 17 people, including three in Canada.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 39 of those who became sick are suspected cases under investigation in the United States.
Meanwhile, the health secretary in Hong Kong said the country has never confronted anything like SARS, which has sickened hundreds of its citizens.
The chief executive of Hong Kong's hospital authority has come down with pneumonia symptoms. It isn't clear whether he has SARS. He had been going through hospitals lately to offer moral support to frontline medical workers and patients.
Hong Kong officials are urging people with flulike symptoms to stay away from work and school.
And a team of experts from the World Health Organization is analyzing cases of a deadly illness in China to determine whether they are linked to the mystery disease.
Meanwhile, a science writer from Johns Hopkins University is urging Americans not to panic as health officials work to determine the cause of the illness.
"Put away the disinfectant soaps and sprays, and turn off the television news," said Wayne Biddle, author of "A Field Guide to Germs." "We are here because our ancestors somehow avoided deadly onslaughts."
He said the fear of catching a dreaded disease can "infect the imagination more easily than the body."
"Our defenses, which are formidable, are constantly adjusting," Biddle said. "We are constantly warding off infection as a way of life. In a sense, we are all exposed, all the time."
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