My letter not published but key message on Sars conveyed by another

The day before yesterday I submitted this brief letter to the South China Morning Post for publication.

More Sars info would be helpful

The daily release of latest Sars figures could be improved to include detailed information such as how new patients got infected. A good example of providing this sort of information which I have found helpful and can be comforting to the public can be found on the Singapore Ministry of Health's site: http://app.moh.gov.sg/sar/sar03.asp.

Details of new patients' movements can also help the government in "contact tracing" which I understand is an important step in helping to contain the outbreak. Also, as the government is releasing a list of buildings where confirmed Sars patients reside, shouldn't patients' workplaces also be included since those would seemingly be Sars "hotspots" as well?

My letter was NOT published but thankfully my key message was expressed much more skillfully, with a lot more details and specifics, in the following anonymous letter which was published just today:

Thursday, April 24, 2003
More information, please

I think one of the biggest problems with the Sars outbreak has been the lack of information released by the government.

In contrast, Singapore's daily report gives complete details about how each Sars patient picked up the disease and possible contacts before the first symptoms appeared (app.moh.gov.sg/sar/sar03.asp).

I think the people of Hong Kong deserve to know more each day than "the remaining 29 were other patients and contacts of patients with atypical pneumonia" as we were told at the weekend. This information gives us no information on how the disease is being caught and spread in Hong Kong.

The government should immediately start to release the following information. Each day, give us comprehensive particulars on each new patient on a case-by-case basis, as is done in Singapore, including letting us know how many Sars patients caught the disease outside our borders and brought it into Hong Kong.

In the list of buildings with infected patients released each day, give the following additional information: date of first infection, date of latest infection and number of flats in each building that had a Sars infection. We can then have an idea whether the disease is spreading within families or within buildings.

For all the flights that have had a Sars passenger, give a flight-by-flight breakdown of how many people subsequently caught the disease. Such information will let the travelling public make an informed decision on how safe it is to fly (and perhaps save our airline and tourism industries).

For those fit and relatively young people who have died, give an indication of why they might have died, including facts such as late treatment, suspected high viral load or a form of Sars that is harder to treat.

Give us the death rate based on the current recovery rate, not on the number of infections to date, which an earlier correspondent showed was misleading ("Analysing the numbers and what they mean", April 16).

It is only with the above information that we can all help fight this disease and win. Not releasing these relatively straightforward details risks more people needlessly dying, and the death of Hong Kong as Asia's World City.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED

This letter is an excellent piece that precisely conveys my thoughts and more (and I'm sure that of many others as well). Kudos to whoever wrote it! I certainly hope the government hears this message and takes appropriate action very soon.

Posted by derek at April 24, 2003 01:37 PM