My letter on the
above subject is published today in The New Paper, Monday 15th June
2015.
I share Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s view that we must
stay vigilant with the outbreak of the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)
in South Korea as reported in “It can come and will come’ (The New Paper, June
12).
Such life-threatening infectious diseases will hit the
world from time to time. That said, we cannot
live in fear all the time, or our lives will be badly disrupted and the economy
will suffer.
At the same time, we have to be vigilant. Most travellers enter Singapore at Changi
Airport and this is where potential infections have to be stopped. Once infected people leave the airport, viruses
can spread easily.
If a deadly infectious disease begins to spread among the
general population, it can cause panic and we have to prevent that.
The
Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Transport should collaborate and build a
quarantine centre at Changi Airport, where suspected carriers of viruses can be
housed till their condition is confirmed and they are either moved to the relevant
hospital, or, if they are cleared, allowed to leave.
RAYMOND ANTHONY FERNANDO
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