In The News

Lessons from SARS

Christine Loh April 9, 2003
Although Hong Kong enjoys one of Asia's best public health systems, the spread of SARS has shown that even its well-run government has room for improvement. The former British colony's re-integration with China in 1997 has led to a booming expansion of trade and people flows across the border with southern China, but at the cost of increased vulnerability to epidemics such as SARS. To...

Respiratory Disease Is Found to Be Spreading

Lawrence K. Altman April 8, 2003
On March 15th, the World Health Organization issued a global health alert for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a new disease originating in Asia for which the cause and cure remain unknown. Since then, many countries have taken precautionary steps to prevent SARS from entering their borders. But international travel available to billions has provided the perfect medium for the disease...

Use SARS as Excuse to Reinvest in Taiwan

Huang Tien-lin 黃天麟 April 7, 2003
SARS is frightening, but so is the 'economic Sinocization' that threatens Taiwan, says Huang Tien-lin, a national policy adviser to Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian. In this opinion piece from the Taipei Times, Huang suggests that by encouraging Taiwanese businesspeople to stay home in relatively safe Taiwan, "the [SARS] crisis will not only boost the nation's GDP but...

Mystery Ailment Watch Expands

Barbara Feder Ostrov April 4, 2003
With nine residents affected by SARS, Santa Clara County in California has the highest concentration of infected people in the United States. Though the U.S. Centers for Disease Control have published guidelines for American public health officials about how to deal with the illness, Santa Clara officials have broadened the CDC’s definition of the disease in order to quarantine more possible...

Terrifying for Asia, Worrying for the World

April 3, 2003
With the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), all fingers are pointing to China. World Health Organization Officials believe the disease spread more quickly because of China’s reluctance to admit that the disease originated in its Guangzhou region. The outbreak went undetected by international health organizations and spread through doctors and businessmen traveling in Southeast...

Why Epidemics Still Surprise Us

Andy Ho April 1, 2003
The world is not prepared for an outbreak of something like SARS, which has been plaguing much of Asia and is quickly spreading around the globe writes physician-turned-columnist David Ho. In this opinion piece in the New York Times, Ho says "the World Health Organization has been [ineffective] in creating and enforcing a public health policy suited for a global outbreak like this one....

SARS Virus Begins to Take Toll on Global Economy

Jacqueline Thorpe March 31, 2003
Fears over the war in Iraq, aftereffects of September 11th, 2001 and high rates of unemployment in the US have already taken their toll on the global economy. Making matters worse, the recent outbreak of the SARS virus, an acute respiratory illness, is hitting hard at an already struggling travel industry. SARS has kept people at home in the worst-affected Asian countries. In Hong Kong, for...