Preventing a SARS outbreak in the State will need similar high-profile approaches as were adopted during the foot-and-mouth crisis, the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, conceded yesterday.
However, he called for calm and some perspective in the debate about the virus, pointing out that many more people were dying from flu and malaria than SARS.
Mr Martin said when people compared the response so far to foot-and-mouth they were forgetting that foot-and-mouth was around for 50 years.
"We are dealing with an unknown phenomenon here called SARS which has just recently become known to the medical community internationally and it can't be stopped by buckets and water, and I'm not being facetious about that but it can't, and I'm not being facetious either when I say we can't confine all humans to farms or confine them to particular locations.
"We can't cull people either, being blunt about it," he said.However, he said he had consulted the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, about the measures taken during the foot-and-mouth crisis and he had been "quite supportive".
He was speaking at a press conference last evening at the Department of Health where a new plan to protect the State against SARS was unveiled.
Two new groups have been set up to spearhead the campaign.They include a national health service implementation group which will aim to make sure the advice of the SARS expert group is implemented on the ground by health boards across the State.
It will be chaired by the secretary general of the Department of Health, Mr Michael Kelly.
An inter-departmental group chaired by Mr Martin is also being established to have a co-ordinated response to the SARS threat from all Government Departments.
In addition, a national communications group has been set up to handle communications around SARS. Mr Martin said he wanted to ensure "co-ordination on the communications front" after last week's debacle when the Department of Health and the Eastern Regional Health Authority publicly disagreed on whether a SARS case in the Dublin area was a suspect or probable case.
"Last week was not the best week in this world in terms of this issue and particularly in terms of communications, let's be honest about that, but we are not into the blame game," he said.
The main focus now, he said, was to "ramp up" advertising and move forward in conjunction with health boards to ensure everything necessary was done to protect people.
It was obvious, he said, that there was increased anxiety about SARS among the public.
Mr Martin said the Department's medical division had also worked through the weekend to come up with answers to frequently asked questions about SARS. Questions answered include "What can I do to protect myself?"
They are available on the Department's website at www.doh.ie or by contacting a freephone SARS helpline on 1800 454500 which went into operation for the first time yesterday. It is manned by public health doctors, environmental health officers and administrative personnel.
Meanwhile, the Department's SARS expert group met again yesterday.
Its chairman, Dr Jim Kiely, chief medical officer at the Department, said no decision had been taken in relation to the Special Olympics.
However, the group discussed the options available to them including banning athletes travelling from SARS affected countries.
On the decision to be made, he said: "We need to get it right rather than get it quick."
The World Health Organisation, he added, considered the games a matter of "major importance" and it was sending an expert to brief the group later this week.
Furthermore, Dr Kiely said he was confident no suspected SARS patient would be sent to a hostel again as happened over a week ago in Dublin.
Lessons had been learned and Dr Kiely said he was now confident that people were "entirely knowledgeable about what they should do, when they should do it and how they should do it".