Do you know that the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
infected over 1700 and killed nearly 300 people during its 2003 outbreak in
Hong Kong?
The disease was first discovered in mainland China in November 2002.
However, the government did not report the case to WHO and Hong Kong until the
situation got worse in February 2003. Later in that month, an infected medical professor
from Guangzhou visited Hong Kong and stayed in the Metropole Hotel. This unfortunately caused the spread of the virus to Hong Kong, Toronto,
Singapore and Vietnam.
The spread of the virus in Hong Kong is quick. All primary and
secondary schools were closed for a month to prevent the virus spreading in the
public; many tried to stay home and avoided going outside, making this busy
city a ghost town; the Amoy Garden housing estate became one of the most
disastrous area and over 200 residents had to be evacuated and isolated in
holiday camps; over hundred frontline medical workers of the Prince of Wales
Hospital had to be quarantined, some even lost their lives while fighting the
disease…
I was still a student when these happened. Yes, it’s cool that we
got an unexpected vacation, but even kids like me knew that the situation was grim
and not many could truly feel excited about this. We watched the news only to
see the numbers of infection were on the rise every day.
And I would never forget the thrill of hearing residents right
from my housing estate got infected every time…We still
had to go to school a month later. While wearing face mask was a must, we also
had to measure our body temperatures every morning to check if we had cold
or any symptom of being infected.
It’s a relief to see the epidemic died down and no more case was
reported since June. Our lives went back to normal after the sudden
disappearance of SARS. It feels like nothing has happened over those few months.
Yet, can we really say that nothing has happened?
The death toll, the economic impact, the horror…The epidemic may
have left without a trace, but definitely left us a scar that would never heal
up.
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