Be Transparent In A Health Pandemic

Maintaining secrecy during a health emergency is not good for any nation. In November 2002, an outbreak of a new kind of pneumonia, which was later given the name SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) occurred in China. Its earliest case was reported from Foshan in the Guangdong province in November 2002, but the information about a ‘deadly flu’ in the province appeared only in text messages and some news websites as late as February 8, 2003.

- Dinesh C. Sharma

Local officials had informed provincial health bureau about the outbreak, and information reached the health ministry in Beijing thereafter. But nothing was revealed to the people or heath workers about the nature of the disease, its symptoms, prevention, treatment and more, till mid-February. By the time the World Health Organization (WHO) could alert the global community about it, the infection had spread to many countries.