Madam, - I would like to reassure the general public that despite media reports to the contrary including the News on RTE on Monday night , many family doctors throughout the country are well aware of the day to day changes in the SARS situation.
Reports from travel clinics throughout the world, information from the WHO and from the Centre for Disease Control in the US are sent on a regular basis to our members by the Irish Society of Travel Medicine.
It is simply not true that Irish doctors are unaware of exactly what is happening in this epidemic. - Yours, etc.,
Dr DOM COLBERT,
President, Irish Society of Travel Medicine,
Galway.
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Madam, - I am writing to express my consternation at two reports in your newspaper last Saturday.
One, by Gretchen Friemann, concerned the effect of the SARS crisis on travel agents. It named one operator, Sino-Irish Travel, which employs three people. Its managing director, Mr David Hoe, is accompanying 20 teachers from a Maynooth school, along with 10 Irish holidaymakers who are touring Northern China, despite advice from the Department of Health to avoid "non-essential or elective" travel to Beijing. Mr Hoe was quoted as saying the atmosphere in the city was normal, with few people wearing face masks: "There is no concern here."
The other report was from Jasper Becker in Beijing regarding the cancellation of the Riverdance tour of China. It said that panic over the SARS epidemic was bringing normal life to a halt as people are staying at home, avoiding shops and other venues.
Which should we believe? The latter, I suggest. With each new day the news is more worrying - with the Chinese Minister for Health having been sacked and the discovery that there are far more SARS cases than had been previously reported to the WHO.
I sympathise with Mr Hoe that his business is being affected. However, I think that he and the holidaymakers who have travelled to Northern China may not be taking full account of the risk to which they may expose the Irish people to on their return.
I work in the Irish tourist industry and there would be a lot more than Mr Hoe's three staff out of work should an epidemic occur here in Ireland - Yours, etc.,
HILARY FINLAY,
Stillorgan,
Co Dublin.
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Madam, - On returning to Ireland on Good Friday after a holiday in India, my companion and I expected a routine questionnaire in Dublin Airport, especially as India had confirmed three cases of SARS.
The one gentleman who appeared to be in control of both the EU and non-EU customs desks asked us where we had come from. When we said our departure point had been Bombay, he asked if we had any food products with us or anything likely to contain foot-and-mouth. There was no mention of SARS! - Yours, etc.,
GILLIAN O'MAHONY,
Clonmel,
Co Tipperary.