Living in the Midst of SARS

There are a few threads talking about SARS in this forum, and while some have rediculed the disease, to many living in Asia, it is considered a real threat. I realize that there are not many people on these boards who actually live in SARS affected areas. However, I hope this thread will become a thread where people who do live in these areas can relate to others what life is actually like. If you want to redicule or discuss other aspects of the disease, please do it in the other threads that have been started for that purpose.
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Living in Taichung, Taiwan, it really hasn't been considered much of a threat as most of the outbreak has been concentrated in Taibei, the largest city on the island and the 'provisional' ROC capital. However, the growing number of 'isolated' cases here in Taiwan's third largest city is causing concern.

When I go to work, my temperature it taken. All schools in Taichung are REQUIRED to take everyone's temperature and if it is too high, they will not be allowed to enter the classrooms. We also have to have our students fill our a list of who attends each class. If one of the students comes down with SARS, we will all be quarantined. A growing concern is at a local senior middle school where a couple of students have come down with the virus. It is hoped that the students at that school will obey the quarantine, but based on the actions of a student at the Jian Guo Senior Middle School in Taibei, many people (myself included) are rather sceptical.

I went to a local hypermarket today. As I was driving my car into the parking lot, they wanted to take my temperature. As I entered the store, they sprayed an antiseptic spray on my hands. Far more people were wearing masks in there today than the last time I went only five days ago. There is obviously growing concern here in Taichung.

When I was driving home, I realized that life just isn't as enjoyable as it was a couple of months ago when we were not worrying about SARS. Of course, with a baby on the way, my wife and I have been as careful as we can not to contract the virus, but I really hope that our child will not grow up in a Taiwan that is constantly worrying about this virus.

 

Thanks for the kind words bundagiri. Things are actually getting worse here in Taichung as it seems an outbreak here is more and more likely, and unsuprisingly it is a university that is the center of the problem here in Taichung.

Feng Chia University has had three SARS cases and hundreds are being isolated. There are a large number of students at that school from Taibei and I suppose it was inevitable that one would bring the virus back with them. Hopefully this can be contained, but there is a lot of sceptism here that it will be contained.

While most people don't wear masks outside (the word has gotten out here that you can't catch it outside except for highly unusual circumstances), more and more people are wearing them in shopping centers and other public places, including taxis and buses. In fact, the national train system REQUIRES all riders to wear masks at all times while on the train. Fortunately, as I travel by car and bicycle, I am not so concerned about public transportation. However, since I teach, I am concerned that some of my students may be exposed to the virus at school (I do have some students from Feng Chia University).

Most people here are scared that they might get SARS. It is something that people here are living with every day and it seems that with every pasisng day, SARS becomes more and more of a threat in our city.

As for the cause, there is nothing other than the official transmission routes except for a theory in Hong Kong that human fecal matter helped its spread. However, since much of Taiwan has at least basic sewerage, I would be suprised if that becomes a major transmission agent here in Taiwan. The problem is that people here don't want to be quarentined. A whole neighborhood in Taibei was placed under quarantine over the weekend, and as of yesterday afternoon, more than 100 people were still missing (AWOL so to speak).

Many of my friends here share my frustration with the selfishness of many of these people. This virus is on the verge of infecting the entire island, and there is no way the health care system (though one of the best in Asia) will be able to cope with an island-wide epidemic. It is all Taibei can do to keep its health care system working, and it has the most health care options on the island.

 

Fah Que, please take comments like that to other threads on SARS. You obviously didn't read the first post I made.

Things are getting worse here in Taiwan. There have been 14 deaths in the past two days on the island, causing Taiwan to jump past Canada and Singapore from 5th to 3rd in terms of death toll.

People are being more and more careful. I noticed attendence in classes down slightly the past couple of days here in Taichung as people are more and more concerned that we are possibly on the verge of an outbreak in Taiwan's third largest city. Many people are on edge.

When you turn on Taiwan's 24H news channels (yes, Taiwan has them too), it is all SARS, all the time. It is rather depressing. The government has been critical of some of the coverage as it seems to be getting the public morale down. From what I can see, on that point the government may be right. Public morale (from what I can see) seems to be depressingly low. Many people seem to be trying to keep a stiff upper lip about it, but the plan fact is that it is affecting people. Ridership on public transport is clearly down and the restaurants near my apartment don't seem to be as full as usual.

Like everyone else in Taichung, I hope that it doesn't become a major problem here. I have stocked up on surgical masks however, which was a good thing because they are now in short supply.

 

The last few days have seen the outbreak grow worse here in Taiwan. On Thursday evening, one of my students told me that a doctor that the whole island had been keeping track of finally succombed to the illness. He was 28, just out of military service and was a few months from getting married. I think at that moment, most of us in that classroom (myself included) felt kind of a sense of doom, like we can't beat this thing. Now, another doctor has died, this time in Gaoxiong. Furthermore, it isn't only affecting Taibei anymore, it is affecting the entire island, and has even spread the Penghu (a chain of islands in the Taiwan Straits formally a part of Taiwan Province and under ROC jurisdiction).

Several cram schools here in Taichung have closed due to students violating quarantine orders and attending classes regardless. There are even rumors floating around that the entire island could be shut down in the near future. Schools, restaurants, movie theaters, even stores could be shut down according to these rumors. I don't know how likely this is, but it seems to be adding to the sense of gloom felt by an increasing number of people in Taiwan.

It is hard to go anywhere these days without having your temperature taken. While Mike Chinoy has been reporting from Taibei and talking about the situation there, that seems to be the situation on the entire island, not just in Taiwan's largest city.

Many people here are wondering if the WHO will give real technical assistance or not. They have sent observers to the island, but have not given any assistance or met with anyone in the government responsible for controlling the outbreak. A recent editorial in a Chinese language daily has asked if the WHO will accept its part of responsibility for the spread of this disease in Taiwan.

Currently, Taiwan has more cases per capita than the Mainland as well as more deaths, however, the WHO is ignoring us and the Chinese government says that the health of the people in Taiwan is "well in their care." People here laugh at those words from the Beijing authorities. Even people were who once neutral on the independence issue are now leaning against Beijing.

Many people here are now looking at the WHO, hoping that Taiwan will gain associate membership in the organization so we can get real help. So far, only the CDC in Atlanta has given any substantive help to the authorities here in Taiwan. The results of the next week could determine if Taiwan will get the support we really need as well as determine the future course of Beijing-Taibei relations including public opinion on the island regarding Beijing.

 

EG - I am glad that the situation in Hong Kong has improved. We have, of course, been kept informed of the situation there through the local Chinese language media here in Taiwan as well as the CNN Asia Center which is based in Hong Kong.

Here in Taiwan, things continue to worsen. Each of the last two days has successively seen record numbers of cases on the island of Taiwan as well as on the offshore islands.

Nearly everyone is wearing masks at Hypermarkets and other Department Stores. More and more schools are closing, not only in Taibei City and County, but in counties all over the island. It is pretty frightening.

Hopefully the WHO will send some expert assistance in the near future as Taiwan is not equipped to handle this kind of outbreak on its own. I suppose China could try to quarantine the island through its political clout in the United Nations and leave us to fend for ourselves.

 

Taiwan's situation only gets worse

Well, it seems that Taiwan is being treated as a land of lepers. In many Japanese hotels, Taiwanese are not welcome. The WHO rejects Taiwan's application for observer status once again, and yesterday say new highs in both new infections and deaths.

Twelve dead and 39 new infections in ROC controlled territory yesterday. Both tallys are the highest in the world as SARS is now worse in Taiwan than anywhere else in the world. About 100 doctors and nurses resigned at two hospitals as there are not enough protective materials to go around. It is truly reaching crisis proportions here in Taiwan and the WHO is unwilling to lend the island a hand.

People here are increasingly upset at Beijing, the WHO, and the government here in Taiwan as the situation gets worse and worse and there seems no prospect for the situation to turn around anytime soon. People here seem generally appreciative of the help that the United States has given (both the CDC and speaking out in favor of Taiwan's observer status.) The European Union was unusually quiet. France spoke out against Taiwan last year, but not this year.

I don't know what the future has for us here in Taiwan. My wife is Taiwanese and we came back here because her health wasn't good back in the States, but now Beijing's interference has led to a SARS outbreak that threatens to engulf the entire island. When will they be satisfied? When all 23 million people of Taiwan are dead? I am curious as to what the reaction will be this evening from my students as class begins. Many of them have been quite outspoken lately.

Please pray for us here in Taiwan. We need it.

 

Situation getting even worse in Taiwan

The situation is getting even worse here. The way things are going, I will not be surprised if we are over 100 deaths by this time next week.

The epidemic has been quite different here than in other places. Over 90 percent of infections has been in hospitals. Of course, some of the blame can be handed to the WHO who did not include the island in real-time conferences regarding how to contain infection in hospitals early on. The results of these conferences was not relayed to Taiwan until it was too late.

Kaohsiung is now the second city to be seriously affected by the virus, with scattered cases popping up over the rest of the island. With the rainy season rapidly approaching for most of the island, there is real fear here that the situation will get FAR worse before it gets better.

My wife and I went to the hospital on Monday to check on our unborn baby. They have stations at the entrance to all hospitals screening for SARS. We had to stand at an infrared scanner checking our body temperature. My wife was a little warm (not unusual for a pregnant woman) and was even asked if she had been to Hong Kong or been exposed to SARS patients. Apparently this is happening all over the island.

I am a teacher at an English language school in Taichung. Right now all teachers at such schools are required to wear surgical masks while teaching all over the island (though students do not). There have been no documented cases of cases being spread by teachers and only a handful being spread by students. As I said earlier, they have been largely spead in hospitals.

Another recent decision regards the sale of fever reducing medicines. It is no longer allowed. There are plently of people who do not have SARS but who have need of fever reducing medicines. The government said that they want such people to go to the hospital. However, under current circumstances, that only strains current medical resources even further as well as expose more people to the potential of contracting SARS.

The situation is quite bad here. A student of mine said that he went to see The Matrix Reloaded last weekend. Normally, such a film would attract a full house on opening weekend as Taiwanese love to go out to see films. However, he said that there were only twenty people in the cinema. THat is quite telling.

Also, as I go around the city, there are VERY few people taking the public busses around the city. Most busses I see are nearly empty. I hope things get better here, but it doesn't seem likely.

 

Interesting that it happened just as the team of experts that contained the bug in Toronto came here to Taiwan to assist the Americans that were already here. Thank the U.S.A. and Canada for helping Taiwan when the Europeans and Chinese would rather throw us to the wolves.

I wish the best for my friends in Toronto.

 

THe only 'help' Beijing offered was the sending of some surgical masks and some "experts". We have had problems with the quality of masks imported from Mainland China and the qualifications of their "experts" is suspect. It is clearly seen as a propoganda ploy. If China was truly interested in helping the people of Taiwan, it would have allowed WHO experts to come in MONTHS ago and would not have blocked Taiwan's entry as an OBSERVER to the organization.

 

Well, fortunately my fears of a week ago ot Taiwan surpassing 100 deaths has not come to fruition. We are up to 81 deaths. Most people in Taiwan seem to think that those deaths are China's fault. I am not sure if I would go that far, but suffice it to say, anti-Beijing sentiment is rather high here in Taiwan now.

For each of the last two days, new probable cases has been just above the single digits (11 and 10 respectively). There is a sense that the outbreak is under control in the hospitals (the source of over 90 percent of transmissions on the island). While the government is advising us not to let our guard down, life is beginning to return to normal. A couple of exceptions to this are continued temperature checks and continued mandating of all students and teachers wearing surgical masks during classes at Taichung cram schools.

We are following matters in Canada closely. Many Taiwanese are thankful for the help both Canada and the United States have given Taiwan during this crisis when the WHO would leave us to our own devises and the tender mercies of Beijing.

 

She is due in December. Thanks Mike. I look forward to visiting all of my Beat Brigade friends back in Atlanta sometime next year with the baby.

 

Well, the current crisis seems to be subsiding (the health crisis anyway). New cases are in the single digits each day (four yesterday) and the death toll has stayed steady for nearly a week. It seems like Asia has the virus well in hand. Life is quickly returning to normal. The number of surgical masks in use is decreasing, although temperature checks are still ubiquitous.

I feel much more comfortable about the situation than I did a week ago as do most of the people I know here in Taichung. We are still ever watchful and are cautious, because we know that there will not be a vaccine for years and the virus is still out there. We are especially concerned that the virus will become virulent in the Chinese country and given the amount of contact between our island and the Mainland, if there is another outbreak in the Mainland, it will surely threaten us.

As I said, the medical emergency seems to be well in control for the moment, but there is a political crisis brewing between Taibei and Beijing. Unfortunately, that has the potential to be more deadly than the virus has been thus far. While the virus has killed 81 in Taiwan, a declaration of independence (which was FAR more likely than it was two weeks ago) and subsequent Chinese actions could kill far more.