Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chinese University of Hong Kong and government officials differed. The former
wanted to shut down the hospital, but the latter refused to do so.
In early 2003, during the SarS crisis, communication between Prc health
authorities and their Hong Kong counterparts was by no means institutionalised. china
and Hong Kong have since improved their cross-border communication by reaching
an agreement on information sharing, informing the other side of any health crisis
and conducting collaborative research on infectious disease. the Macao government
has also been incorporated into the regional communications network, facilitating
health information exchange. In early 2008, the outbreak of influenza in Hong Kong,
Macao, and South china prompted the three governments to hold health awareness
and information meetings to hammer out solutions and enhance mutual cooperation.
with regard to surveillance and quarantine measures, during the SarS outbreak
the HKSar government installed infrared temperature-testing equipment at the
airport and ports so as to identify potential disease carriers. the equipment was a
useful tool by which immigration and health officials tracked down SARS-infected
victims. Singapore's surveillance was the most impressive in asia, mobilising nurses
and doctors dressed in fully protective gowns and masks to treat SarS patients, who
had to use cordless phones and video-conferencing to communicate with their close
Public-private partnership could be seen in Hong Kong's tackling of SarS.
Government and civil society organisations mobilised to resist the mysterious disease.
the media contributed tremendously to the processes of scrutinising governmental
management of SarS, exposing the problem of inadequate facilities and criticising
reckless remarks made by government officials and Hospital authority leaders. In
contrast, china's media organs were relatively weak, failing to reveal the spread
of the disease until the central government gave the green light to launch an anti-
SarS campaign. the pressure on the media in mainland china to censor themselves
was particularly strong during the annual meeting of the national People's congress
(nPc) in beijing in March 2003. without the determination of President Hu and
Premier wen Jiabao to tackle the problem of SarS, it is doubtful whether the local
media in the SARS-infected provinces could have triggered the alarm first and
openly reported the health crisis.
Public resilience was prominent in both Hong Kong and china, where numerous
healthcare workers tragically succumbed to the disease. Despite the rising number of
deaths in both places, health workers displayed their professionalism and loyalty by
resisting the SARS epidemic to the end. Yet, psychologically, many ordinary citizens
of Hong Kong suffered tremendously from the continuous reports of deaths in the
early half of 2003.
Healthcare workers in taiwan experienced a certain degree of demoralisation.
a few were so frightened of the disease that they escaped from their hospital by
jumping out of its windows. Hospital chiefs squabbled over the SarS solutions—a
phenomenon complicated by the politicised nature of hospital administrators loyal
to political parties of differing ideologies. exacerbating taiwan's weak capability
was its inability to partake in the wHo as a member. taiwan's limited governmental
