SARS house reopens doors

One day, when 3-year-old Tsang Wing Lam is older, she will learn that her first trip away from home was to a quarantine camp in a former mil...

One day, when 3-year-old Tsang Wing Lam is older, she will learn that her first trip away from home was to a quarantine camp in a former military barracks. She will be told that the stuffy masks her parents strapped over her mouth were to protect her from a disease called SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome.

For about 100 people, including Wing Lam and her family, at least the ‘‘holiday camp’’ had a harbour view. It was a hostel-like place, set amid trees and shrubs, where campers could take in the fresh air, away from the city and SARS. But Wing Lam’s family is just glad to be back in their small but bright apartment on the seventh floor of the Amoy Gardens apartment complex, a petri dish that incubated 329 cases of SARS.

• China said on Monday 12 more people had died from SARS and another 75 were infected, taking the death toll to 252 and the number of cases to 5,013
• New Zealand will trial an infra-red camera to check arriving air travellers for SARS this week, the first country outside Hong Kong and Singapore to do so
• Hong Kong on Monday reported five new SARS cases and three more deaths
• Singapore has converted a resort of government beach chalets into a quarantine site, where people can stay for a subsidised rate of S$25 ($14.40) per day
• Hollywood is planning a movie set in Hong Kong called The City of SARS. It is a story about medics and a couple who fall in love while quarantined in an apartment. (Agencies)

The quarantine camp was a way for Hong Kong to deal with the spread of SARS in the crowded apartment complex. On April 1, health officials rang the Tsang family’s doorbell, and that of other families in Block E, the section most affected by SARS. Block E was where a man who did not realise he was infected stayed for four days, visiting his brother, officials said.

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An investigation concluded that the virus probably was passed through the building’s sewage system, person-to-person contact and the use of elevators and staircases. All of the tenants in Block E were ordered to pack quickly and leave for a 10-day isolation. About 130 people went to a different camp for families of SARS-affected patients. About half the residents of Block E had already fled the complex when the order came, moving in with relatives or friends. All had to be traced by the health department. When Wing Lam asked why her family had to depart, her father, an unemployed dim sum chef, gave it a merry spin: ‘‘You’ll have fun. There’s a children’s playground,’’ Tsang Kam On said he told her.

But he could not completely blot out the reality of the disease. There were the gauze masks, the travel prohibition and the commercials with their ‘‘1/99’’ message: the bleach-to-water ratio recommended as a disinfectant to help fight the disease. At the camp, Tsang and his wife, Lui Fuk Lin, staved off boredom by reading newspapers and watching TV.

Meals were brought to their room three times a day, usually a ‘‘bento box’’ with pork or beef and rice, vegetables and a soft drink. They had a table and six white plastic chairs, four single beds, a toilet and a shower. For Amoy Gardens resident Lee Kok Cheong, it was ‘‘like sitting in prison.’’ There was no swimming pool. The horses at the stable had been moved because of concern that people might infect them with SARS, he said. The one upside was that he became better acquainted with his neighbours.

Earlier this month, Health Secretary Yeoh Eng-kiong acknowledged that Hong Kong had not responded quickly enough to the SARS outbreak, but said that at the time, experts had scant understanding of the disease. New cases of SARS have plummeted at Amoy Gardens. To date, 33 residents have died, about 10 from Block E. About 40 children have lost a parent. A 13-year-old girl lost both parents and is living with an aunt. The government has set up a fund to help the families of SARS victims. Hong Kong announced four new SARS cases on Sunday, the lowest total since officials started reporting SARS statistics in March.

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Three people died Sunday, they announced, including one from Amoy Gardens. That brings the toll in Honk Kong to 215 deaths and 1,678 infected people, of which 1,059 have recovered. With new infections tapering off, officials are cautiously optimistic that the WHO will soon lift an advisory against travelling to Hong Kong.

Now that Block E has been disinfected and most people have moved back, Tsang hopes the familiar routines of life will return. One day, he said, he will tell his daughter about what the holiday camp was really about. Even then, he figures, SARS will still be around. Like HIV/AIDS, he said, people will learn to live with it. (LAT-WP)