There is a natural fear that comes from proximity to disease. Rational thought becomes much more difficult in such circumstances, especially when the element of uncertainty or of the unknown is added.
That’s the case these days with SARS. And as Japan is just a short hop away from the apparent epicenter of the SARS outbreak, I can’t help but feeling a bit of anxiety about the spread of the virus.
Not that Japan is really any closer to China than any other country with an airport, tourists and business travelers. After all, Canada has had the highest SARS death toll after China and Hong Kong. And there are currently more than 150 suspected cases of SARS in the United States.
Here in Japan, the government reports that there are now 28 “probable” or “suspected” cases of SARS in this country. (UPDATE: The Japanese government is now saying that none of these 28 cases is considered to be SARS.)
One of my students returned from a trip to Southern China last week. I didn’t really think anything of it until after sitting through a lunch looking over her snapshots from the trip and realizing that the area she’d been in was in Southern China. Then, just two days ago, she mentioned that a friend from China had visited her family last weekend and that her husband was in China this week on business.
The family of another student has been planning to move to Toronto this June so her husband, a doctor, could work at a hospital there for a year. They’d planned to travel to Toronto last week for a quick visit, but had to cancel because of the SARS outbreak in that city. It turns out the hospital where her husband was to be working is connected to the facility that saw the first Toronto SARS deaths. One hospital is shut down, the other under restricted use. Her family’s plans to move to Toronto are now on hold.
I’d planned to travel to China in June, but that’s not going to happen now. Even a trip to Seoul is up in the air. At this point, any Asian travel plans will have to be made at the last minute, depending on the spread of the virus.
8 thoughts on “Thinking About SARS”
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Hi Mike, What a great discovery this site is. I’m comming back to it. Question for you as per the SARS copy, I am ticketed for Thailand, Bangkok only for April 28 throu May 8. Needless to say we change planes at Narita airport. Would this stop you from going? Please respond ASAP since I can only change my ticket up to the 15th of April Thank you LP
Linda — As far as I know, there are still no confirmed cases of SARS in Japan. A good resource for up-to-date information on the SARS outbreak is the website of the U.S. Centers of Disease Control (CDC). It includes a section on travel advisories and resources.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/sars/
As of April 14, the CDC is advising against any nonessential travel to mainland China and Hong Kong, Singapore, and Hanoi, Vietnam.
Hey Mike
Since, I knew the Chinese
Err…sorry about that. -_-
I was saying, since I only knew the Chinese name for it and it was a sort of pneumonia, I didn’t realise it was called SARS when my colleague asked me if I knew what it was. Especially since I have been “meditating” in my flat asleep for my holiday week.
Although worried, I have not let it bother me too much. My parents have asked me to buy a virus mask, which I have done, and I try to avoid people with coughs while I go to work.
Of course, people are little more worried, especially since my colleague, who had a cold, came to work with a chesty cough.
We have a group of eight children and 13 adults scheduled to leave NZ on 19 May for Amagase, Japan and then a visit to Singapore on the way home. Should we consider postponing?
Corrina
Anyone with concerns about SARS looking for advice on whether to travel abroad should check out the CDC advisory web page listed above.
Personally, I wouldn’t travel to Singapore at this point. Japan seems perfectly safe at this point, but that could change here — or in any other country in the world — in the future.
Hei,
I’m feeling so lucky to find this site by chance!
I’m a student in TURKEY and I’ll be in JAPAN-Osaka in the month of july to join to an exchange program with the students all over the world.
But I’m so afraid of the SARS.Do you thing it would be safe to be in japan in july?Thanks a lot…
Burcu,
I don’t know if it will be safe to travel to Japan in July. It’s impossible to predict what the situation will be like in the future. Right now, there are no SARS cases in Japan, although there was recently a scare when a Taiwanese doctor with SARS visited the country.
Japan Free Of SARS 24 May 2003
The United Nations World Health Organization has a web site that provides updated information on SARS for travelers:
WHO Travel Advisories
For updated information on SARS in Japan, you can read The Japan Times or the Mainichi Daily News.
I hope you are able to visit in July.