The U.S. Department of Health is also warning companies to plan and prepare for new-type flue, unlike Japanese government.

The U.S. has done these preparations and is now already in a phase of checking them. The following is the subjects listed in the checklist.

1. Organizing a team for new-type flue that assumes responsibility in a company.
2. Distinguish between essential works and other unessential works for processing material into product.
3. Training and preparation of employees.
4. Measures for absence of employees.
5. Preparing a communication plan in order to ease employees’ anxiety.

The Department of Health is pointing out that also companies need to plan how to supply information about infectious diseases and measures against them in emergency.

SARS and Journalism - Risk Communication

1. Control of SARS and Missions of Journalism

We learned from experiencing SARS that risk communication is very important. In preventing spread of SARS, it is true that medical technology and administrative institutions play important roles, but it is still hard to conquer it by themselves. Especially at this stage when a vaccine or remedy for SARS is not discovered yet, citizens are needed to carry out their basic hygienic knowledge and cooperate to public health caring measures in case of mass outbreak. To realize this, there is an important role that the press has to play as the receiver and the sender of disease information.

The victim countries of SARS proved a fact that the press needs to announce disease information quickly and accurately in order to eliminate misunderstanding and prejudice for the disease and to prevent panic in case of epidemic, through the lesson they learned.

2. Spread and Journalism in China

WHO has later officialized that the first appearance of SARS was as an unknown atypical pneumonia in GuangDong, China, on November 16, 2002. SARS in GuangDong started to show a sign of epidemic in January 2003. Various groundless rumors were spread in this area, such as, “disease germs were scattered,” “hundreds of people has died,” or “boiling vinegar is effective to sterilize the room and prevent air transmission,” which caused a sudden rise of vinegar price. The city actually panicked with the people running to hoard foods and medicines.

Chinese Ministry of Health held the first press conference on April 3, the next day WHO announced travel warning to Hong Kong and GuangDong Province. Chinese press finally started to report this atypical pneumonia after this day. It was regulated by Chinese government until then. China’s experience of SARS indicates that ungrounded rumors will spread and social panic will happen if enough information is not released when people are desperately wanting it.

3. Information Disclosure of Hong Kong Health Department

On April 11, the press reported that unknown pneumonia was breaking out particularly among medical workers in a hospital in Hong Kong while a doctor who came from GuangDong City, GuangDong Province died from pneumonia in another hospital. Right away, Hong Kong Health Department and Hospital Bureau held a press conference day after day, informing about up-to-date patient number, characteristics of the disease, preventive measures and so on.

The epidemiological investigative ability of Hong Kong Health Department was most remarkable. It clarified that the infection source of 75% of the early-stage infection in Hong Kong and most international cases was a doctor from GuangDong City at once, held a press conference right away, and explained easily so that all the citizens could understand. The names of the hotels and the flight numbers were also all released to warn other guests and passengers.

The epidemic in Hong Kong can be divided into two stages, the first stage of hospital infection, and the second stage that started from the mass infection in the high-rise apartment resident called Amoi Garden. Once infection spreads over a city, it becomes very difficult to control the disease. In Hong Kong, the number of total infected patients was 1755, and 17% of them, 299 patients died by the end of May, when epidemic ended. “However, in spite of this tragic number, the social functions were kept normal,” reported the Hong Kong Director of NHK of that time. Schools were closed. Citizens refrained from going out or consuming. But regular business was going normally in offices and shopping streets. The distribution of materials including masks and medicines did not panic either.

Almost all citizens wore masks following the infection-preventive measures announced by the Health Department. Tens of thousand people volunteered to participate in the cleaning and sterilizing activities. None of the medical workers deserted their jobs in Hong Kong, even though they were facing a serious crisis of hospital infection. They just kept doing their duties.

This reasonable correspondence of Hong Kong citizens and medical workers thanks to Hong Kong Health Department, which kept giving information to the press about not only the danger of the disease, but also what kind of measures they were taking to manage the crisis.

4. Correspondence to the Taiwanese Doctor Case in Japan

From May 8 to May 13 of 2003, a Taiwanese doctor, who was infected by SARS, traveled in Kansai area of Japan after passing the quarantine. When this fact was revealed, it became controversial how the government was to inform the crisis of transmittable disease to the nation.

The Ministry of Labor and Welfare at first released only the summary of the doctor’s schedule in Japan, but on May 18, it decided to release the detail of his whole schedule and warned the people who needed to be inspected, using the press. Its aim was to have the people who used the same hotel or restaurants and had a concern about their health condition raise their hands, since the government realized that it was impossible for the communities to point out all the people who possibly had had a contact with this doctor by only investigation.

It was also to correspond to the people in neighboring areas who wanted detailed and accurate information, since the community was receiving question calls one after another from them. This case proved that it is necessary to quickly provide enough information to respond the people’s need when their interest in the danger is extremely high.