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SARS: Nobody's buying Malaysia's
silence
By Jiang Yu-hang
HONG
KONG - The deadly atypical pneumonia known as severe
acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has rapidly spread
across the world, affecting five continents to date.
Those countries that have frankly released information
about local cases treat the illness as a health crisis.
But in Malaysia, which has attempted to cover up the
epidemic situation, panic and anxiety are prevailing,
rumors are brewing and everyone is paranoid.
According to official World Health Organization
(WHO) figures for Southeast Asian countries as of
Tuesday, the number of infected cases in Singapore was
113, with eight deaths, highest in the region; in
Thailand, seven infected with two deaths; and in
Vietnam, 62 cases and four deaths. In Indonesia, SARS
has been declared a national epidemic threat.
Singapore's neighbor Malaysia, however, has confirmed
only one case, the others being "probable" or "suspect".
But the "clean" record of Malaysia fails to
convince people either within or outside the country.
Suspect cases have been reported in Johor, Penang,
Sembilan and Telok Intan. The government on April 1,
when it was revealed that hospitals nationwide had
patients under SARS watch, made a U-turn to reveal that
the country had eight "suspect cases" of the illness
under observation. And it was not until two days later
that the Health Ministry made public that 59 suspect
cases had been reported and 19 of them had been
quarantined.
To make things worse, worried about
close scrutiny, the country's Interior Ministry advised
the English-language media to "be cooperative and
adjust" their reports about atypical pneumonia.
Similarly, Chinese-language media, including Sin Chew
Daily, Nanyang Siang Pau, China Press and Guangming
Daily, which carried headline news about atypical
pneumonia before April 1, moved all related reports to
inside pages on that morning, leaving the public to
speculate about the severity of the problem.
Since the outbreak of SARS in the region,
Malaysia has had four deaths attributed to flu and
fever. Hospitals haven't revealed the causes of those
deaths and the authorities deny that they died of
atypical pneumonia. However, hospitals dealt with their
aftermath in the same way they deal with that of deaths
from infectious diseases. One victim's family members
were even compelled to be isolated for two weeks. When
asked the cause of the victim's death, Dr Ahmad Shukri
Ismail, chairman of the Health, Youth and Sports
Committee of Pahang, declined to answer, noting that it
was confidential.
Although the authorities'
explanations are full of contradictions, the government
still denies that Malaysia has SARS cases other than the
single case listed by WHO. This is not the first time
the government has covered up an epidemic situation. Not
long ago, when coxsackie, Nipah and dengue-fever viruses
hit the country, relevant information was also kept
secret, leading to many innocent deaths. The Malaysian
government, disappointingly, hasn't learned from
its own history.
The authorities appear to be
playing with words, labeling true SARS cases matching
with WHO classification as "suspect cases" and denying
deaths of such a cause in the hope that the country will
not be on the list of affected countries, all this out
of fear of mass panic or scaring tourists. This
self-deception, however, fails to improve public
confidence in the government's competence in handling
threats from SARS. On the contrary, it leaves the public
in panic, leading to a loss of credibility on the
government's part. (The WHO list of "affected areas",
ie, those "in which local chain(s) of transmission of
SARS is/are occurring as reported by the national public
health authorities", comprised, as of Tuesday, Toronto,
Singapore, Guangdong, Hong Kong, Shanxi, Taiwan and
Hanoi.)
Although Singapore is one of the hardest
hit by SARS among Southeast Asian countries, the
government has shown courage in its fast response and
presentation of all relevant information, which has made
the Singaporean public trust their government's
competence in containing the disease.
The most
effective way to fight infectious disease aside from
medical treatment is through information exchange
and high transparency. Sadly, in today's information
era, there are still countries that refuse to place
human life ahead of face. The results are the loss of
valuable time, which international efforts need to
prevent the spread of disease, and ultimately, the loss
of many innocent lives.
Malaysia should learn
from neighboring Singapore instead of following China's
example. At this critical moment in the global SARS
outbreak, any country's top concern should be to protect
its people. Everything else, including image concerns,
should be secondary. The surest way to stem an epidemic
is to provide detailed, accurate and timely information
to both one's own public as well as international
organizations.
(©2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd.
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