Monday, June 15, 2015

MERS OUTBREAK : Have quarantine centre at Changi Airport - Raymond's letter to the press



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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