SARS
A test of character
Fear has made some Singaporeans irrational, irresponsible and others heroic, charitable, capable of the supreme sacrifice. By Seah Chiang Nee
Apr 18, 2003

LIKE any war, this one against the fast-spreading SARS has its fair share of the good and the ugly, serving as a mirror to show up a lot about Singaporeans.

The city is in a state of nervousness the young generation has never experienced before.

This comes from fighting an unseen enemy that lurks in its midst, a virulent virus unknown to the medical world. Singapore is the third worst hit country in Asia. It has killed 12 and infected 172.

The fear has made some people irrational, irresponsible and others heroic, charitable, capable of the supreme sacrifice.

First, the ugly!

These are scared, selfish people who resent nurses walking near them. They scold people for visiting China and Hong Kong and yet scoff at people wearing facemasks in public.

They include bus and taxi drivers who refuse to pick up nurses near Tan Tock Seng Hospital, which is designated for SARS patients.

Their insensitivity shows up at hawker centres by people who walk away as soon as a nurse sits down at their table.

Others make "poison" calls to a doctor who picked up the bug while working with cases, blaming him for passing it to others. "What kind of people are they?" his wife asked.

The doctor is himself under investigation to decide whether he had known of his SARS symptoms before he flew from New York to Singapore.

That got the whole SIA planeload quarantined. His pregnant wife and mother-in-law were also infected with SARS.

Ugly are also people who cash in on other people's worries.

"There are snake-oil salesmen everywhere," complained one email sender. They sell scented oil, anti-SARS necklaces or green beans.

Other individuals profiteer by selling facemasks at double the normal price.
Ugly, too, are those who denounce people who had to travel to China or Hong Kong for business or work.

In my list is one recent example. It involves a panicky dental surgeon and the receptionist at NTUC Denticare, operated by Singapore's labour movement, whose story hit page one of Streats under the headline "For Shame."

They had refused to treat a woman for a toothache simply because she worked at the SARS hospital.

The receptionist had told her that since she was from "that hospital," the clinic had to practise infection control measures. She was so loud that worried patients left the area to wait outside.

The Tan Tock Seng executive burst into tears. Like her colleagues, she had already been living under constant pressure from home and from the public because of their work with SARS patients.

Almost half of the 133 cases here are healthcare workers, the vast majority of them nurses who are shunned like lepers in places they go.

The Tan Tock Seng executive later said: "I can understand when taxi drivers and the public shun us. They could be ignorant. But I was very hurt and disappointed when fellow healthcare workers do the same."

Finally, a sympathetic part-time dentist attended to her.

Initially, the manager of NTUC Denticare, Wong Tuck Wah, defended the non-treatment, saying: "It's the doctor's decision to treat or not to treat, and we prefer to err on the side of caution."

He was sadly wrong. That's not what healthcare means.

The next day, Wong apologised to the snubbed lady. "We should have been more sensitive and discreet in handling the situation," he said.

The Singapore Dental Association told Streats it was embarrassed by the unprofessional conduct shown in the incident and extended its apologies to the lady.

One landlord told a nurse from Myanmar to move out of the room he had rented to her - for fear of contamination.

Then there are the irresponsible ones.

During the enforced students' stay-home, more than 100 parents brought their children to infected areas, risking other children when school reopened.

Subsequently at least one socially irresponsible mother taught her daughter to lie to her school by denying she had gone abroad.

No fewer than 13 of more than 490 people now under home quarantine (because of contacts with patients) have sneaked out, placing the public at risk. Six were students and the rest relatives of patients.

One lawbreaker almost got a hospital in trouble. The stay-home woman came down with fever.

Instead of phoning for a special ambulance to take her to the SARS hospital for a check-up, she went to her family doctor without telling him she was under quarantine.

Two days later when the fever persisted, her relatives took her in a car to the non-designated National University Hospital, where she was found seriously ill with SARS. Her husband is also infected.

An upset Health Minister Lim Hng Kiang described it as "irresponsible," bringing risk to the public and contaminating other hospitals.

"If you have been given a home quarantine order, abide by it," he said.
The government plans to install surveillance cameras in the homes of quarantined people.

The war has, of course, produced a large share of heroic people who respond to the call of the times.

On top of the pyramid is a group of doctors and nurses treating SARS patients at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital. They are putting their own lives on the line.

In fact, all hospital workers are at risk of contamination. All except one of Singapore's public hospitals have reported cases of staff infection.

There are everyday stories of sacrifice.

An anaesthetist at Tan Tock Seng, married without a family, reportedly volunteered to go into the Intensive Care Unit to look after the 10 patients, including a trainee cardiologist on the respirator.

The reason? He wanted to take the place of another anaesthetist who had a family.

Some are motivated by religion. Others whose job puts them at risk are airline flight crew, airport workers, taxi drivers and security people who come into contact with stricken people.

Lately there's been a large outpouring of public sympathy for the nurses. Dozens of people have offered to provide them free transport.

Advertisements placed by professionals or companies expressing gratitude to their work are appearing in newspapers every day.

"These nurses are like our commandos in a war," exclaimed one of dozens of email comments.

SARS is now a test of character for Singaporeans, collectively and individually, commented Nominated MP Simon Tay. "This is a good opportunity to find out more about ourselves."

(An updated version of an article published on Apr 6 in the Star, Malaysia)