Hysterical flu
The June Eureka Street drew attention to a number of the social, economic and public health issues associated with the recent outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS. What it did not give, however, was a critique of the hysteria surrounding this outbreak. Indeed, the hype around SARS overwhelmed all our media outlets; the only critical comment I’ve seen has been an email drawing attention to the counter-epidemic of Severe Loss of Perspective Syndrome or SLOPS.
In what is increasingly becoming the decade of fear, SARS can now be added to the rousing threats of terrorism, rogue states and (so-called) illegal immigrants. Like these, SARS exposed the fault-lines of our communal psyche, drawing on our fear of dangerous strangers. At home ABC radio bombarded me with the latest news on this mysterious disease. At work I was officially warned of the ‘very low risk’ posed by travel to Canada, China and other affected places, while some staff lobbied for the compulsory quarantine of travellers from these areas.
Sometime in the middle of this ‘crisis’ there was a glimpse of sanity when the World Health Organization reported that more than a million people die each year of malaria—that is more than three thousand a day, which is more than three times the number of deaths so far attributed to SARS. Yet on the following day SARS was once again a lead item and the concern over malaria had disappeared.
We need to have the international infrastructure and resources to cope with deadlier epidemics, but what is of greater concern is that we do very little to stop the preventable deaths of millions of people a year. We know that malnutrition is the biggest risk factor for untimely death, and that the really dangerous diseases such as malaria, HIV and tuberculosis can be greatly limited if we choose to fund the necessary initiatives.
The email on SLOPS linked its spread to ‘the end of the war in Iraq and the need for Western leaders to give the public something to worry about’. Perhaps now that the SARS crisis is officially over (at least for this year), we can look at developing a more responsible international health program, a program driven by the desire to save lives, rather than fear.
Matthew Klugman
Moonee Ponds, Vic
Little credit
I wish to provide a disappointing update to your readers regarding information in my recent article ‘Capital investment’ (Eureka Street, June 2003).
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